Novocastrian

Are you free for dinner any time next week?

dbd33

I reckon so, and can bring forks.

Novocastrian

I just ask because C is off to Ingurland tomorrow and is flying BA. Now unfortunately her return date is right in the middle of the strike announced today. C'est la vie. But I may may need your pulled pork soon.

dbd33

Frozen pulled pork I have by the bucket load. New pulled pork may be a long time coming, that's not worth doing unless you have an army coming over.

Oink

This might have been more seemly in a PM.

Alan2005

Don't encourage them; I don't want to find 10 pages of low rent noel cowardian comments tomorrow.

ann m

Have you seen the film "Outsourced"? It is, in a nutshell, the above. With some romantic fluff and colourful sets thrown in for good measure. A genteel observation of what you describe.

dbd33

I haven't seen the film but the process is so routine that it would draw me as much as a film called, "Getting the Bus to Work" or "Washing the Ceiling Fans in the Hope of Selling the House". I might even be more excited by the prospect of one called "Witholding Tax Considerations in the case of Support Payments to a non-Resident Former Spouse" if it was in IMAX and 3D.

ann m

Oh, it's better than that .... but with similar levels of danger

MarkG

There's no paradox. If workers in Scotland are no longer productive enough to justify paying them to shell prawns rather than shipping said prawns half way around the wall to pay someone who'll work for less, then either they need to increase productivity or find a more profitable line of work. Countries get rich by doing things that people in other countries want but can't do, not by artificially supporting business which costs more than it would elsewhere... protectionism may make you richer in the short term, but in the long term it's a fast track to poverty.

The problem the UK has is that taxes and regulations are so high that few companies wanting to start up in a new area of technology would be mad enough to do it there. If, say, you want to design new GM seeds using stem cell research (yeah, it's a contrived example) or build a new generation of small-scale nuclear reactors, would you set up in England or China?

Edit: for the record I generally try to avoid buying things that are made in China, but that's because so much of it is crap that's not worth even the discounted price. I'm sure that over time much of it will improve, particularly as the West does its best to reduce productivity with taxes and regulation.

Alan2005

Yes, I know. I did say it wasn't valid. I kind of agree with your first paragraph - protectionism is only ever a short term solution to mitigate the transition of skills in the labour force.

The rest though, not sure. If I was setting up a bio-tech company then I would pick the UK over China because this is an area that the UK excels at and there is the expertise and infrastructure there already. You certainly wouldn't pick the US or Canada for your particular example because there are too many religious fruit-cakes.

Partially discharged

I've seen it and I thought it was quite good, although it did feature that actress who recently portrayed 'tara' on Coronation Street which did make it seem sort of strange. However, she was rather easy on the eyes

MarkG

And in Britain there are too many 'environmental' and 'animal rights' fruit-cakes. Fear of progress is endemic across the West these days, but Britain seems to be far worse than most... any company wanting to do anything that the media could build up into the next 'GM scare' is doomed.

Alan2005

I think you over are over-stating it. There is plenty of this kind of research going on in the UK. The UK is rightly one of the worlds leaders in this industry.

Novocastrian

I don't think Mr.G is the type to let a little fact derail his frothiness.