Listened to one enunciate at length on the death of British manufacturing while watching my host nervously watching me till he could bear it no longer and had to make the pronouncement “Jan is in manufacturing”. Just managed to restrain myself and reply that indeed I was and actually was quite a supporter of British manufacturing. Wow! People like that make me mad!! Don’t often venture into Cambridge for business and suspect it is atypical of what is happening in the world today, bearing in mind that its three largest employers are all public sector, between them employing a massive 55,000 people. One topic covered was an interesting debate on how we are all handling the approaches of larger procurement offices that are announcing needs to slash 25-30 per cent off existing prices. Most round the table seemed to recommend debate – I have always taken a more immediate, plain ‘stuff it’ approach, and no recession is going to change that. Anyone playing that game with me can take their business elsewhere because being out of work is better than funding someone else’s business.
