LETTER: Marks & Spencer only has itself to blame

After reading the article by Sir Alan Meale concerning the closure of so many Marks & Spencer shops, I believe it only has itself to blame.'¨M&S was once a prosperous place where it sold 99 per cent of British only goods. However, in my view, it wanted more profit so many of the store's articles are now made overseas.

Marks and Spencer store, Westgate, Mansfield.

That alone has robbed thousands of men and women in the country, including the Mansfield and Ashfield regions. There is no longer any textile factories, some of which were the hosiery mills, Meridian, Simpson, Wright & Lowe, as well as Remploy where I worked for more than 40 years. I feel the chain’s knitwear no longer has the same quality it once had.

On one occasion I went into an M&S with a friend who was looking at jumpers. One of them had threads pulled and uneven hand sewing. If they had been made here, the factory which made them would have had their whole order returned, I believe. That is an example of second-class goods sold at first-class prices in my view. I myself have not bought anything from M&S for more than 11 years, and I know of others who have done the same because of what I have mentioned. I will certainly have no need to go into M&S it sells only food.

Kate Allsop

Beck Crescent, Mansfield (NB, this is not the Mansfield Mayor, simply a correspondent with the same name)