THE Buy British campaign of the 1960s was a movement that appealed to many, even though we discovered later that the poster urging us to "Buy British" was printed in Portugal and the Union Jack was upside down.

Membership of the EEC and an increasingly global economy mean that it can be seen as unacceptably nationalistic to advocate favouring domestically produced goods. Can we really snatch precious pennies from the hands of workers paid a pittance in the Third World to pay more for British made goods?

On the other hand, the current plight of our farming industry is a shining example of what happens when the consumer is tempted by lamb that has circumnavigated the globe and is still cheaper than the domestic product, despite burning up all that expensive fossil fuel to get it here.

Supporting local industry, local jobs and communities can be expensive. But without being xenophobic one can legitimately feel better disposed to British manufacturers where the product is comparable in effectiveness and price.

However, multinationals and their complicated ownership make it increasingly difficult to work out what exactly is or isn't made in the UK by a UK company.

Although, at least goods made in the UK by a non-UK company do provide jobs for our fellow citizens, despite the fact that profits may end up in America, Germany or Japan.

I would love for instance to own and drive British made cars. My first wheels supported an Austin 16 (briefly until it expired on the North Circular), then two Triumph Heralds, an Austin Healey Sprite and a Mini Cooper.

Thereafter patriotism succumbed to pragmatism. As domestic vehicles diminished and declined, foreign imports became more acceptable and desirable. We now own a German car and a Japanese seven-seater, the essential carrier for a family with four children. There are British made versions of the latter, but they were not competitively priced at the time.

I have adopted a policy of buying British where I can and where the standard of manufacture is comparable and the price allows it. Certainly I seek out British food. And I wish I didn't have to work quite so hard to discover that the Golden Delicious are Delicieuses D'Or.

I find it hard to justify the purchase of meat, vegetables and fruit that are the natural products of our climate and countryside ahead of similar imports.

Clearly, if you want melons, grapes and pineapples, then patriotism has to take a back seat.

Occasionally, the decision is made easier when the British product is also the best. Which country, for instance, would you expect to manufacture a ride-on garden mower that didn't get clogged up by grass laden with the moist lushness caused by our very British summer rainfall?

After years of clambering under machines designed for warmer drier climes to haul out masses of green gunge, I discovered that in Great Haseley, just three junctions up the M40, they manufacture a garden tractor that is designed for our dew-laden greensward. And my creation of those quintessentially English green two-tone green stripes can now continue peacefully without the frequent discomfort of crawling under the darned thing to declog.