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Has it been, and its only Thursday, a bit of a come to Jesus week for this country?\xa0

Ola are leaving, they\u2019ve been here five years, and they clearly can\u2019t make it work, gone.\xa0

Kate Sylvester, a doyenne of her industry, announced she is done. Done in an industry not so many years ago we sort of got fizzy about each year at fashion week, as no shortage or names like Trelise, and Karen, and Adrian, and Kate lined up their wares to the queue of overseas buyers who flocked to the country to wax lyrical about our creativity.\xa0

Newshub finally confirmed they are closing, so we are down to one television version of a news bulletin.\xa0

We could of course talk about all the downsizing, but at least with downsizing there is room to grow another day, as opposed to the lights getting turned out as the last one leaves.\xa0

Which brings us to the question: is this the new us?\xa0

We have had the debate in airlines. Essentially, we aren't big enough for two of them, so we have about one and a half, and moan a lot about them.\xa0

We are clearly not big enough for two television news channels and is it important to have a local fashion industry, it is? Or does any old tat in from Vietnam suffice? Do we care?\xa0

Spada, the people who make television shows, called yesterday after the Newshub news for the Government to save local production.\xa0

Is a local tv show any more important than a local frock?\xa0

How much of this is a nice to have versus something of cultural or patriotic significance?\xa0

And how much of what we are seeing is economic? In other words, if we weren't in the mess we are, these places would be fine.\xa0

The television side is simple: not enough people watched. So that\u2019s on them and us, and Meta came along and nicked the money because we like short videos.\xa0

We clearly like H&M more than Kate\u2019s stuff, so that\u2019s life, isn't it? Or is it?\xa0

The French are very good at the patriotic equation, they protect a lot of their local production. But do we want to be like the French?\xa0

Does every job have to be taxpayer supported? Is that what we are down to?\xa0

How much weight do we place on the simple economic truth that if you make or produce something of value you will be fine. If you don\u2019t? Well, that\u2019s life.\xa0

And for all those closing, what about those who aren't? How come they make it work while others don\u2019t?\xa0

Is there not a lesson in that for us all?\xa0

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