Backing Britain seems to be the right thing to do at the moment, especially with the French cancer that is eating into our beef industry. Of all the major high street retailers, Marks and Spencer in my mind conjures up everything British. And yet in recent weeks we hear of M&S abandoning the British textile industry in favour of the cheaper factories of foreign climes. Here's another nail in the coffin of British manufacturing in general. I doubt very much whether any of the new suppliers of their fashions will come from the EU. What is the point of having a trading community if member countries are free to shop elsewhere without the burden of strategic import taxes. Free trade should only be within the community so that the community intentions remain strong. M&S ­ and I'm sure many other businesses in the UK ­ are helping to weaken EU resolve by shopping elsewhere in the world. Marks' emergency policies are unnecessary. Instead of being proactive and addressing what is wrong with their company, they have made panic moves in a reactive way, slashing costs instead of trying to increase sales. They need to employ a new board with vision who will regenerate the company. Otherwise they are dead and buried. I don't think it takes many brains to know what is wrong. Mediocrity' is out. The public have shifted into two camps ­ those who want quality and those who want low cost. M&S fails on both counts. A word of advice: you have a good food product, extract it from the mediocrity that the rest of your group stands for. Set up separate food shops to challenge Waitrose where quality counts, then get a makeover of the remainder before it is too late. {{NEWS }}

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