There seems to be a thing in the UK that almost any consumer item made here and British owned is of inferior quality. Take kitchen white goods - well they have to be German or Italian: cars - well that's very easy, they have to be German: TVs - made just about anywhere except the UK: mobile phones - well, we don't make any so that's easy enough - and the list goes on as long as you like.
Curiously though, there are some interesting anomalies that turn this idiotic notion on its head.
Let's start with cars. The British love German cars - after all, isn't their engineering just so superior to ours?! Then of course there's the "Well there isn't a British car industry any more" routine. As it happens we manufacture and export more cars now than at any point in our history. Sad to say nearly all the car makes are foreign owned; which begs the question as to why foreign owned manufacturers are so much more successful than British ones!
In a pub recently the waitress said that she needed a new car, her Audi was getting old. So I suggested she look at the current Jaguars instead of a German make - Jaguar means jobs in the UK if nothing else. But she said no, because her husband says that Jaguars are just Mondeos! Having owned two of the older X-Type models that were originally based on the Mondeo floorpan, I can categorically say that they are absolutely nothing like Mondeos! In fact just 14 components in the X-Type were the same as a Mondeo! The current range of Jaguars has absolutely nothing at all to do with Mondeos! Curiously the Audi Q3 and VW Tiguan were 40% based on the Skoda Yeti (designed in the Czech Republic), but you'll never, ever hear that an Audi is just a Skoda!
This country is so obsessed with German cars that we import 1 in 7 of their entire production - although recently it was suggested to me that it was 1 in 5. Other countries are a little more politically and economically aware and realise that home production brings jobs and prosperity and, more importantly, keeps their money in their country. Ford ceased production of all cars in this country some years ago and switched production to Germany and Belgium, because they know the British prefer not to buy cars made in the UK! We still make the engines and gearboxes and send them to the Continent to be fitted into the cars we buy over here!
Brexit might suggest that we are very Nationalistic, very patriotic to the point of xenophobic. That being the case, why are we so obsessed with products not made in our country. After all, home built products provide jobs which provide prosperity. So buying so many foreign goods has the opposite effect on our welfare and economy and merely supports the other countries. Certainly a very curious way of showing our patriotism!
