Why is Rachel Reeves wooing China when she should be championing British goods? - Sarah Todd
As Rachel Reeves was photographed looking right at home next to Chinese Vice-Premier He Lifeng and his country’s red flag, the pavements were pounded looking for a polo neck jumper to keep the recent wintry weather out.
Every single label turned over, even in that once bastion of British clothing Marks & Spencer, told the same story. All made in China.
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Hide AdThrowing in the towel on knitwear, the footwear departments were stepped into.


Yes, you’ve guessed, it was the same story. Even in what would be regarded as higher end shops, toe after toe was turned over to reveal the soulless stamp ‘made in China’.
Turning for home, empty handed, it was hard not to wonder why Ms Reeves thinks cosying up to China yet further is “squarely in our national interest”.
Granted, she says agreements reached in Beijing would be worth £600m to the UK over the next five years, but is anybody in our Government looking at the scary situation of being unable to buy British made goods in our own country? And all at a time when, in the past few weeks alone, the UK has expelled an alleged Chinese spy, along with worries about the country’s human rights record and - just the other day - worker exploitation, specifically in the fashion industry, in the news again.
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Hide AdAgreeing with anything US President Elect Donald Trump says or does always results in a barrage of criticism, but is there not some sense in his proposed aggressive trade policy, which could result in tariffs of up to 60 per cent on all Chinese goods?
Who is pledging, to re-coin Trump’s phrase, make Britain great again? Or have the suits in charge just given up?
Maybe our nation, many still working from home, don’t care where their clothes are from. They are happy sat in their own four walls, clicking on their phones or computer screens, ordering goods online without ever pausing to look at the country of origin. So long as it;s cheap enough does it matter? It should.
Talking of working from home, hundreds of HM Land Registry staff could go on strike over a civil service mandate to work in the office three days a week.
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Hide AdThe Public Services and Commercial Union has announced that thousands of members working for Land Registry voted for strike action after being ordered back to the office for three days a week.
There is a very real fear that any strike action will prevent home buyers from beating the aforementioned Ms Reeves’ stamp duty increase from three per cent to five per cent, due to come in on April 1. This could potentially cost hard-working British families thousands of pounds if the deadline is missed.
This possible delay to getting property sales through seems especially mean, like those railway worker strikes that were timed to coincide with public holidays and busy periods of travel.
Sometimes it seems that there are aspects of working life that have never returned to pre-Covid normality.
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Hide AdRinging the doctors, for example, any caller could be forgiven for thinking the pandemic was still in full swing. In this correspondent’s opinion, Covid-19 has been used as a cloak for some sectors to get away with towing a light harrow. This is a farming reference, relating to not pulling the heaviest workload possible.
Private enterprises being open to talking about working from home options, to help people continue with careers as they juggle childcare and other responsibilities, must be applauded.
But not Government departments that we, the taxpayer, are bankrolling. Have you ever tried to speak to a real-life human being at the DVLA for example? They seem as rare as hen’s teeth. Holidays, pensions; Government workers get the lot - but are they putting a serious shift in?
An up-to-date working from home study from online printer ink company TonerGiant.co.uk showed over 80 per cent of the 2,000 hybrid workers admitted to watching television during work hours, averaging two hours daily.
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Hide AdThe favourite watch was streaming services such as Netflix at 49 per cent, with 24 per cent tuning into daytime television show This Morning, and other favourites including the likes of Loose Women and Homes Under the Hammer.
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