[WinslowPorker]

Hi everybody just a quick thought

I went to Cadburys world in Bournville yesterday with the 3 kids and thankfully my sister drove as still cannot get to far in the car!!!

Anyway for those that have not been you get there you have a couple of bars of free chocolate and then start the tour. the first part is the history of Cadburys and i cannot help but feeling a sense of sorrow after listening to what cadburys did for UK Commerce, the local population and the enormous amount for employee welfare, now all of which is under American ownership!!!!!!!!!!!!    I just cannot help but feel how we as a nation have been done a very big wrong by letting this giant of British-ness be controlled by the yanks!!

Dont get me wrong the kids had a great day and came out with plenty of chocolate and Jess looked like she was made of chocolate and milkshake by the end of it, and i am not trying to put a downer on things, however it doesnt half make you stop and think!

[Hilarysmum]

I agree, I dont buy anything from Cadbury now.

[Rosemary]

I think it was a real sham too, although I can't say I don't buy Cadbury now. What is  British company? Green and Black is owned by Cadbury, so by association, I'd have to not buy their chocolate and so on. I think often we don't know who owns whom, and apparently "independent" companies are actually owned by big chains or foreign owned.

[plumseverywhere]

I think Cadbury's being bought out and losing Woolies to the recession left me feeling really down - it was a huge chunk of English history and my own childhood disappearing    Also being reasonably local to Cadbury's you can't help feeling sad for all those people who lost so much - employment, homes, sense of  community - very, very sad.

[Fergie]

I agree.

We've lost a lot due to the recession, and I think there is a lot more hardship to come.

John

[Hilarysmum]

and whilst mega corporations can move factories to cheaper production units it will continue.  It would take every Brit who bought from Cadbury to stop to make even a halfpenny worth of difference.  I dont know if there is a British made alternative now though.

[doganjo]

Is there a British Made anything these days or am I being too cynical?

[plumseverywhere]

the whole Cadbury's area suffered over the last few years - this post has reminded me that we lost Longbridge the rover/MG plant not long before cadburys. very sad.
and dogandjo - something that always riles me, living in plum/asparagus country as I do (evesham) - is when our local Tesco sells foreign, imported asparagus or plums - there are tree's heaving with them here yet we import!! 

[WinslowPorker]

I think another shame is that i would bet good money that hardly anybody knows what the Cadbury family did for south Birimingham and also for employee welfare, to say that Mr Cadbury was inspirational would be an understatement!! it should form part of school history lessons in my opinion

and in a strange way his vision for the billage of Bourneville was almost Willy Wonka-ish and that is meant as a compliment

[lazybee]

We still have good old British Petroleum

[scattybiker1972]

probably not for much longer if the  good ole us ofa have anything to do with it even tho it was their parts that were faulty.   

[lazybee]

BP is almost half American, in the U.S they where working to American standards, certified by the American Bureau of shipping, using an American well control equipment, with an American drilling rig, with American engineers, with American drilling crews, with an American rig manager.

I work in oil (I hate it, much as it goes against my lifestyle) I have worked for BP many times throughout my career and I can say without doubt they are the strictest company I have worked for with regards to safety and environmental standards and ethics. A visit to the Wytch farm oilfield in Dorset can confirm this. They really have been unlucky in this incident. I really is a bit rich for all these Americans involved in a witch hunt and keep stressing the word "British" as if it's got nothing to do with them. END OF RANT

[Rosemary]

Americans bitching about oil extraction is a bit rich - if they didn't use so much, maybe there wouldn't be so many problems with it. And Obama seems to want to make a point of being a hard man.

If they don't want us to extract oil in the US, we'l just go somewhere else. What about Libya? 

[WinslowPorker]

Totally agree Rosemary, the yanks guzzle more oil than probably all of Europe and now are complaining about what has happened? need to look closer to home!!

[doganjo]

If they don't want us to extract oil in the US, we'l just go somewhere else. What about Libya? 

They'd welcome a Scottish Company with open arms, but not an English one I doubt