Olympic bell

[Dickon]

> it is still not a British bell, i.e, not made in this Country.

This is a matter of opinion and revolves around what constitutes the making of a bell.  If it is just down to pouring the metal, then yes, it is Dutch.  If factors such as what the design is, the supervision, and more importantly for a tuned bell, where the cuts were made, not to mention how the money flows, then it is not so clear and the balance swings back towards the UK.  It is because of this difference in views that I don't believe shame is being brought on the country.  Remember, we would have had a completely different product if Holland had run the process from beginning to end – put simply, a Dutch bell would not have been the same.

> This was a massive chance to promote UK bellfounding to the World, but instead, Holland has got the glory

As far as the vast majority of the media is concerned, it is a UK bell, so of course damage hasn't been done and Holland isn't getting the glory.

> If I lived abroad and wanted a big bell casting and found out that a UK company subcontracted a
> large casting out overseas, I would form an impression that UK companies may not be able to
> supply large castings, so I would shop elsewhere.

If anyone abroad has the money for this sort of thing, I think they would do their research properly and be well aware of the capabilities of British foundries.  This is a low likelihood low impact risk.

In business it is increasingly common for companies to work in partnership, lending their particular skills to a project, and this is merely another example of this happening.  While it is possible that one foundry could have done the entire job, that doesn't necessarily make it the most cost effective way of doing it, and I have no doubt Taylors would have also considered the option of using facilities overseas rather than rearrange their foundry to manage such a large casting, had they been allowed to quote on that basis.  It makes good business sense.

> the Contractors should be ashamed of themselves

But this is the phrase that bugs me.  What has Whitechapel done wrong???

DrL