General Chat

BY BOYCOTING A COMPANY FOR WHERE THERE GOODS ARE MADE WOULD ONLY AFFECT THE WORKERS WHO ARE PAID A PITANCE ALREADY
THEY MAY THINK HOW LUCKY THEY ARE TO PROVIDE FOOD FOR THEIR FAMILY AND HAVE NEVER HEARD OF SAFTEY CHECKS,AND ALSO WHAT IS THEIR HOUSING LIKE,WOULD YOU BOYCOT A COMPANY FOR THEIR WORKERS HAVING UNSAFE HOUSING.

Death comes much too soon for all of us by natural causes. Nature does not need the help of crumbling factories or drones to hasten the process.

Thanks for explanation to Det, and john :-)

Lilybids. Have to be a bit careful here, but building owner gone missing. Hopefully pro tem. And not sure building regulations and inspections in third world countries are always that good. I note earthquakes in USA cause less damage than similar ones in other countries.

Wasnt there a simlair incident a few years ago in Turkey, where corners had been cut and cheap concrete had been used?

The building owners, and the building inspectors (if they exist in Bangladesh) who turned a blind eye to the construction defects and unauthorised additions.

This is not the first building to have collapsed, and it won't be the last.

AnnC. I know when I worked for Tesco pre-1990 they had about 300 highly skilled (and quite highly paid) technical experts checking all their suppliers. It was part of the contract with all suppliers. I expect they are still doing that today in spades.

But they probably will not be reporting back on external state of buildiings or minimum wages, I would have thought. Each country or region regulates building control and wages and working conditions, and multi-national businesses would be heavily criticised if they got too involved.

I think when this tragedy is investigated, we could find that responsibility for these deaths may not lie with Primark, Tesco or the Bangladeshi Government.

I never buy in Primark but as has been said, Primark must have made mega money out of their collaboration with the Bangladeshies and therefore have a moral obligation to see that things are being run properly - I am sure they can well afford to oversee the building of a new factory ensuring proper safety standards - the workers will all lose out if Primark pulls out of Bangladesh

I would expect Primark and Tesco to oversee safety standards wherever in the world, aftr all they obviously send their buyers out there so they can send Health and Safety people too - surely the buyers must have seen conditions and reported back?

OFITG.

We had a shop in 1950's. We sold mainly British made goods - newspapers, cigarettes, sweets, cleaning requisites, greetings cards etc. So did Margaret Thatcher's dad - local produce. We were a nation of shopkeepers selling British goods. We used British coal, we used gas and electricity supplied by British companies in Britain

Now look down typical High Street and tell me what has happened to haberdashery shops, grocers, fruit & veg shops, butchers, post offices.

The world is now reaping the benefits of trying to buy goods at unethical prices made or grown thousands of miles away . That is the connection. It leads to death, misery and boats sailing half way round the world with stuff that previously was driven round by lorries within the UK. It is not sustainable, it is not ethical, it is dangerous. :-(

Boycotting imported goods brings to mind what happened when the volcanic ash cloud disrupted transportation.

The producers (of say fine beans from Kenya) couldn’t send their produce to Europe. They had to lay off the pickers and packers causing hardship to the families.

It transpires that the building which collapsed had 3 extra floors built on top with out building permission.

What the hell does Alfred Roberts a grocer from Grantham have to do with a human tragedy in Dhaka the capital of Bangladesh :-S

Its just not a new thing,,overseas buying has happened for decades,

Where could a British manufacture produce any of the goods that are sold in say £1 shops,,,,,,,they just couldnt.

British made clothes,,,,what country does the material come from who manufactures the material for high street fashion ,overseas &imported.



Even British made shoes.....the leathers are imported.

avoiding any store wont help,,,,,,,its other countires buying that keeps them in a job ,stores who sell keep people off the dole,,,,

:-S :-S :-S

Sundays is a non-wum day - and have no idea why you should imagine it was my purpose to wind you or anybody up, Hayley. IT MOST CERTAINLY WAS NOT!!!!!

You just can not resist can you John.....any excuse to wum ...how very sad :-(

I'm with Dermot on this. But would have to wear a pair of British sunglasses with rose tinted lenses to avoid the more horrible visions :-D :-D

Seriously, we are wearing and eating things at the expense of lives in the third world. People are being forced to work at low wages and in unsafe and crowded conditions. The Fair Trade campaign has been good, and has encouraged more ethical spending.

But what has happened to supporting British goods? I made the point about me buying British to make the point - if cars and white goods are made in Britain, they are usually not British owned companies. Owners have no commitment to that area once subsidies are removed and another country offers them better incentives.

Yes, simplistic Errol - quite right. But it is the economics that grocer Alfred Roberts in Grantham would have understood only too well. If you cannot be sure of the things you eat and wear, don't put em on or in your mouth. ;-) :-)

I fear the cold fact is that even if the super rich shared their wealth (and with human nature that ain’t going to happen, just look a Communism in the old USSR), the world population is now so large that there would never be enough wealth to give everyone a comfortable standard of living.

Mayfield.

If UK residents divested themselves of their garments made in these overseas establishments, half the population would be walking around naked.

The answer, imho, across the world, is less profit for the hierarchy, more pay to the workers!!!

This is done by less of the 'I want to put x y or z in your country, how can your government make it profitable' (by the way there's something in it for you)

To, it being illegal for governments(ie MP's) to have anythng to do with companies whilst in government.

Being a cynic of the highest order, I can see a lot of the ills of the world are caused by ministers feathering their own nests. if this was illegal, governments wouldn't have a 'spin' on things.

It starts quite low, like Hampshire County Council introducing a computer system that only they use, at a cost of £25000, courtesy of a friend of a councillor, which means we (the 'real' workers) have to do 3 procedures, instead of 1 to send an attachement with an e-mail!!
Not only that - the system is crap, slow, and crashes frequently. It doesn't automatically save, so when it crashes, you lose everythng you've done. You also can't save things in folders, so are faced with a list of 'things', and have to look very carefully to see what you need, whereas before, if you needed handouts etc for a course, they would be in a folder..

If that can happen within a local council just imagine how it can get with MP's/government and the money they can glean!!

We have a primark locally and when the shop opened over 2 years there was 5000 applications for 200 jobs, they employ a lot of people in the UK , if these shops are boycotted because of the tragedy in India then we would certainly feel the knock on effect here.

I honestly dont know what the answer is.

Dear All

Hello


People are still being rescued alive from this terrible scene.

One lady had given birth.

The arrival of a new life in this appaling tragedy is a miracle.


My heart goes out to the families, those injuried and also to think of the rescuers who are working tirelessly to find more people who are trapped.



Take gentle care all
Sincere wishes
EOS
xx