One of the past traditional treasures of Timbmet was the "homegrown" yard on Cumnor Hill.  There one could stroll along dirt tracks, through lines of neatly laid out boulles - mostly oak but other species too - savouring the aroma of timbers slowly drying in Oxfordshire's gentile rural surroundings.  Perfectly stacked, 'through and through' sawn logs might sit literally for years until they were considered ready for kilning and selling to discerning customers.
 
It's all gone now, devastated in the last decade by cheaper but actually higher quality square edged sawn packs from Eastern Europe; no split ends, no checks, no knots, no bends, no smells...just metre after metre of perfect, mild oak ready for use with frankly far less trouble for the purchaser.
 
Two trips last week reminded me of the old yard.  I was in Poland, the guest of one of our suppliers.  One could rarely, if ever, expect English logs to get close to the quality I saw there.  The Polish product is wide, clear, straight and flat with so little defect that the boards could almost have been tropical. The forests of Eastern Europe have presumably been left for generations untouched in order to grow such fine timbers.
 
The UK woodland story was, and still is, very different.  We have been raiding our best trees for centuries clearing the prime stands for shipbuilding, stately homes, educational institutions, furniture and last, but by no means least, naval warfare.  Our built heritage is there for all to see but sadly in the forestry department it is woefully diminished. 
 
"Not entirely so" says Philip Koomen, on my other visit this week to his admirable furniture workshop in Checkendon.  There you can savour craftsmen built tables, benches, chairs and other quality pieces all made from character English timbers carefully seasoned in Philip's very own backyard.  
 
Of course Philip is correct and there is still much to be cherished in home grown species - his furniture more than speaks for itself - but alas Timbmet's large scale UK "homegrown" production is gone forever replaced by the worthy foreign alternative. 
 
If it is character one seeks then one must search small scale and locally.  There are great UK sawmills where local grown timbers can still be found.  They can be pricey but then so they should be...nature's character product, as I witnessed close up this week, remains well worth paying for.

You wouldn't expect a general election to pass without some political comment from any self respecting blogger.  Now don't get too excited...I have no intention of telling you who to vote for.  What I can reveal is my personal recommendation on where I believe the next government should first look for all those much talked about savings in government spending.

One of the relatively minor stories to hit the headlines this election week concerned an equal pay claim in Birmingham City Council.  An incidental fact to emerge - to my utter amazement - is that the workers who empty the street bins in Birmingham earn £32,000 a year! 

I have always been one to believe that there should be a reasonable, minimum wage for all, but I still can't help comparing the Birmingham bin emptiers to very highly skilled artisans in my industry, who will have trained for years to learn their craft, and rarely earn as much as £32,000 a year.  By the way there will be a generous pension attached to the local authority income as well

The artisans of the timber industry diligently pay their local taxes from their sub £32,000 a year incomes to fund, amongst other things, the emptying of street bins...a vital task I am certain but with great respect to the folks who do it not one that requires the skill-set of a joiner, carpenter or cabinet maker. 

How can local authority pay scales have become so out of kilter with private industry?  How can we have an economy that so undervalues manufacturing against the public sector?  The answer is pretty obvious...it's not really economically viable at all; it's economic madness and an abuse of public finance.  The challenge to our new government, whichever persuasion they happen to be of, is to address this wrong. 

Everyone seems to agree that government spending is too high.  Doubts have been expressed about where wastage can be found.  May I humbly suggest to our newly elected Prime Minister that he can start the search for savings in the street bins of Birmingham?