Solution: boycott China; boycott Arabia. The powers that be in both parts of the world show little interest in development as understood by people who by clothes in the west.

Take the United Arab Emirates. Nobody could pretend that it is a poor country in the amount of oil money held by resident’s bank accounts. Nor could anyone pretend that the lot of a UAE factory is poor. It is horrendous. Maiming is a common punishment in criminal courts, and guest workers found guilty are likely to have the punishment carried-out where local families can often bribe or influence a better decision. As for civil rights of junior employees in a sewing factories, I don’t know: what do you think?

Until free-trade enthusiasts can explain the condition of guest workers in the United Arab Emirates, there is nothing more to be learned from them.

There’s an awkwardness too. Until 2002 the biggest chain of clothes shops used to advertise “over 90% of clothes are British made”, and that was as acceptable and old-fashioned as supporting your nearest team in a sport. They over extended themselves, ran short of money, and sacked 3,000 people at their subcontractors because the pound was over-valued at the time and it was barely economic to make things in the UK, specially when the new competition were offering fast fashion at great cost to their suppliers.

In this embarrassment, issues like whether something is organic get dis-proportionately mentioned while whether something is made in an autocracy that closes any free hospitals and invades neighbours is mentioned (but without mentioning the country the thing is made in).

So what happens in 2009 when a quarter of government spending is borrowed, the former big taxpayers like Royal Bank of Scotland are not going to revive any time soon, and there is a big chance of the pound’s value falling?

Will it become OK to wear the standard clothes in different ways to show individuality, rather than expecting Primark to stock different clothes each month? I remember when wearing a jersey inside out was stylish.

Will it become trendy to count UK and European production as an ethical choice, alongside fair trade? I don’t see why not.

The only old-fashioned and embarrassing thing that needs to change is supporting the home team of a “nation” at the Olympics on a huge taxpayer subsidy. The idea of “nations” and taxpayer subsidy to prove one better than the other is simply cringemaking and needs to end, while buying british pants at M&S because they are made in a democratic welfare state will, I hope, become normal again.

good news is that Milkymerino [TM] are selectively breeding bare-breech merino sheep. this means they don’t need to mules.

Milkymerino [TM] is a fabulous new washable jersey fabric that combines 35% milk protein with 65% superfine merino

the company is working to secure a production chain that uses minimal chemical input and will leave the smallest carbon footprint