LETTER : China flies the Union flag

I WAS briefly jerked out of my VE nostalgia weekend by your depressing article ("Another kind of export", 7 May) on how 150 jobs have been lost from a British Polythene Industries plastic bag factory as its machinery is exported to China where labour costs are a tenth of ours. So much for political parties' fantasies about solving UK unemployment by retraining for a high-tech future, I mused, as my children burst in waving their plastic flags in readiness for a street party. The Union Jacks of course bore the inevitable legend, "Made in China".

Colin Hines

East Twickenham, Middlesex