I sympathise with John and the staff. Johns message about supporting local business was ironically portrayed in a Copland Council leaflet he showed me last Christmas. The leaflet was about promoting local businesses and encouraging people and firms to buy local. The leaflet was printed down south.

My heart goes out to Mr. Jenkinson and his team. Having recently gone through a redundancy situation, and the farrago of dealing with JobCentre Plus, all I can say is keep your heads up and don't let the b******s get you down. Taking Mr Jenkinson's point re local spending, is it not time to stem the flow of cash from Whitehaven to the ringing tills of Workington? Has anyone in high office got the nous to rescue this Georgian gem? Pie in the sky feeds no families, time for solid action. PLEASE.

Sorry to hear about Printexpress closing, but if their order book was the highest it's ever been last month, there most be something else going wrong somewhere - excess staff? Excess wages? Excess drawings by the partners? Something has conspired to close down a firm with a "healthy" order book.

If they're getting the orders in, they must also be getting the money in