MrSmith Posted August 2, 2012 Share Posted August 2, 2012 Here, take a couple of hrs out an read this if you can: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/nov/16/why-britain-doesnt-make-things-manufacturing There, I've copied it out for you too: (had to cut the end off, too many characters) Why doesn't Britain make things any more? In the past 30 years, the UK's manufacturing sector has shrunk by two-thirds, the greatest de-industrialisation of any major nation. It was done in the name of economic modernisation – but what has replaced it? Share2734 Does it say that profitable business was closed? And why they were closed? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigsexydoug Posted August 2, 2012 Share Posted August 2, 2012 Why didn't the tories try us to make the UK more competitive rather than just selling off industry or closing it down? im still waiting for you to answer my question ! before i answer another one on yours here it is again incase you missed it, if all that maggie closed down were so profitable , then why didnt labour re open them all and make us all billionaires ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mecky Posted August 2, 2012 Share Posted August 2, 2012 im still waiting for you to answer my question ! before i answer another one on yours here it is again incase you missed it, if all that maggie closed down were so profitable , then why didnt labour re open them all and make us all billionaires ? What question is that? How many usernames do you have anyway? I find it incredible how certain people log on at roughly the same time and make similar posts on similar or the same topics at the more or less same time, then disappear for the same number of hours/days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrSmith Posted August 2, 2012 Share Posted August 2, 2012 Why didn't the tories try us to make the UK more competitive rather than just selling off industry or closing it down? The unions stood in their way, once the unions add gone the more competitive businesses could thrive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mecky Posted August 2, 2012 Share Posted August 2, 2012 The unions stood in their way, once the unions add gone the more competitive businesses could thrive. Why did they? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrSmith Posted August 2, 2012 Share Posted August 2, 2012 Why did they? Because they were stupid and though UK workers could continue to be paid more than their competitors in other parts of the world. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mecky Posted August 2, 2012 Share Posted August 2, 2012 Because they were stupid and though UK workers could continue to be paid more than their competitors in other parts of the world. A rather simplistic view Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
I1L2T3 Posted August 2, 2012 Share Posted August 2, 2012 You could look at this in terms of profitability pre and post the move towards globalisation. Pre-globalisation it is clear that much British manufacturing was profitable. Many comapnies had thrived for decades, making things that were consumed domestically and exported all over the world. Once the globalisation process started then the cost advantages moved to the economies with lower wages, less health and safety, less environmental controls, cheaper energy etc... If a country does nothing to protect its industry against these advantages, perhaps even positively encouraging businesses to move productive capacity abroad, then it is impossible to compete. Some firms adapt and move. Others don't adapt and die. When the industry is gone the damage is often permanent. You can't just bring it back. Skills are lost. Training capacity is lost. The capital barriers of re-entry to markets after productive capacity is dismantled or moved abroad can be substantial. In short it's a long road back that requires genuine government support and investment. If the support isn't there the industry doesn't come back and no government since 1979 has shown the slightest interest in building our manufacturing base back up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrSmith Posted August 3, 2012 Share Posted August 3, 2012 A rather simplistic view There was little point in giving a more complex answer because you would ignore it any way and ask the same question in a couple of weeks. So the simplistic version will have to do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anna B Posted August 3, 2012 Share Posted August 3, 2012 The problem is that the current generation of politicians have no idea what real industry is. They all come from a Oxbridge background that is geared towards steering them into politics or the city, so that is all they understand. Don’t kid yourself that Labour will be better, because they won’t. They are just another bunch of ideologically bereft careerists like this lot. Correct. But then when you start picking politicians by the way they look and talk, rather than by experience that's what you get. All politicians should have to produce an exacting public CV which includes all their achievements and experience, and what they can bring to the job. They should then get that Claude bloke off the apprentice to publicly interview them. Our way of selecting politicians is ridiculously amateurish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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