Cap in hand....

Margaret Thatcher famously observed that "it's a funny old world...", (not that the lady exhibited a noticeable sense of humour)...

Bear with me on this one...

I used to work for a large manufacturing company. We manufactured most of our own parts and shipped them between manufacturing plants for final assembly, all in-house. Then, about thirty years ago, we started "outsourcing" sub-assemblies to local suppliers to build, for inclusion in the final product. Gradually we moved to subcontracting major assemblies and finally full products. But we no longer used UK suppliers but Eastern European and then Asian companies. Now that manufacturing plant is closed. All of the product is made and assembled in the Far East, mainly China. You can buy it the shops, it has the same name and the same logo and the same image, but it's no longer made in the Britain. 

Which brings me to the point....

Amid much fanfare, our Prime Minister David Cameron has flown to China on a "trade mission". His objective is to get China to favour us poor Brits by spending some of the giant surpluses (surpluses that they make from manufacturing our products), with us. Anything to offset our giant trade deficit with that country.

China will listen gracefully, and they might drop us a few crumbs. But Chinese politicians and officials have no real need to help us in any way. They've got our manufacturing, (which our own companies exported to China in pursuit of profits and what-the-hell to their UK workforce) and, with a population of 1.2 billion people, they have the capacity to provide their own services ta-very-much.

Now. What would have happened if western companies had insisted on keeping jobs in the west? And with it the technology and associated jobs? Who would be visiting whom?Who would be begging for a few crumbs from the rich man's table?

Maggie didn't get much right, but it certainly is a funny old world...