I watched a documentary about the A380, and how the thing comes together from all over europe. Incredible waste in the way that logistics are handled in order to satisfy politics.
Hmmm, sounds just like the Boeing 737 assembly line, where the whole fuselage is manufactured in Wichita, Kansas, then shipped in sections on rail cars across the USA to Seattle to be put together. Distance is much further than Broughton to Toulouse.
And a lot of the 777 is manufactured in Japan and shipped right across the Pacific to Everett (plant not on the sea, it's on top of a hill !). Entirely for politics.