That particular hot potato has been on the menu for years. Still, it's sad to see yet more jobs moving out of the UK - it won't be long before you have to travel to India, China or the US to get any job that involves research and development - nobody does this in the UK anymore.

"nobody does this in the UK anymore"

And it is getting to the point they no longer do it in the US either. Care for a little bit of curry with your meal? Perhaps a side of Peking DUck?

Actually there are lots of companies doing R&D in the UK, that's one area where the UK is quite strong.

It's the work of turning that R&D into hard cash by productizing it that is going to cheap labour countries. Note that the plant Sun is closing is the *manufacturing* plant, R&D work is still being done in the UK by Sun.

Still, with skilled wage inflation in India running at 25% it won't be a cheap place to outsource to for much longer. China and Eastern Europe are the hot places these days.