There is no disguising the extent of the blow to the economy of Ulverston, and throughout South Lakeland and Furness, of the proposal by GlaxoSmithKline to shed 400 jobs over the next two years.

The statement by the company does its best to soften the bad news.

It says the intention is to defend the site's main business against competition.

It says the proposal is subject to full consultation with trade unions and staff representatives.

It says the company regrets the impact the proposals will have on the local community and the company intends to work with community representatives to minimise those effects.

This is all the language of the well-oiled machine wishing to ameliorate the damage, stay within modern legislation and generally make the best of a bad job.

There can be little doubt that substantial jobs will be lost.

This is despite all the assurances given when GlaxoWellcome merged with SmithKlineBeecham, little more than a year ago.

The blow will be hardest felt in Ulverston where Glaxo is overwhelmingly the biggest local employer, with 1,000 or so workers living, shopping and using local services.

But many of the staff also live and have families further afield in the Lake District.

Ulverston was seen to be relatively safe from rationalisation, despite big job losses elsewhere in the new organisation, because it makes the raw materials that go into the production of drugs and is, therefore, an essential part of the process, whichever brand is being pushed at the time.

But the announcement yesterday has dire implications for all businesses in the Western World.

It concludes that a key material should be purchased at a globally competitive price instead of manufactured on site.

That can only mean it is cheaper for the company to buy in than make it.

This will sound familiar to workers laid off by K Shoes, for instance.

There are also echoes of major redundancies when AXA insurance and later Scottish Provident, now owned by Abbey National, closed down operations in South Lakeland.

A remote multi-national with a head office elsewhere in the world can too easily make decisions that will have devastating economic consequences on local communities.

This runs in direct contrast to the principle of sustainable local communities, given so much lip-service by those in Government.

It makes it even more important that when a local company, like Lakeland Limited up the road in Windermere, wants to expand and create 100 extra jobs, it is given serious

consideration, and every encouragement by local planners.

The challenge for people at Furness Enterprise, whose remit is to create jobs in the peninsula, and its sister organisations across the region, is to foster more

indigenous entrepreneurs, like Lakeland's Rayner brothers.