Where is it made now??

[raveydavey]

There is an interesting article in one of the Sundays today commenting on how building an economy which relies on us delivering pizza to each other, going shopping and doing up houses to sell on wasn't perhaps the best idea in the world....The death of the manufacturing industries is often blamed on the Conservative (Thatcher) regime, but under the Tories manufacturing only dropped from 25% to 22% of GDP. Under New Labour it has dropped from 22% to 12%.The thing is that manufacturing over here simply cannot compete on cost with overseas where staff have far fewer (if any) rights, precious little 'elf and safety interference and where working for buttons per week is a bloody good wage by comparison with what the next bloke earns.

[dogduke]

Bloke I know works for a local company whohave shipped their prodction line equipment to thePhillipines.New workforce are as happy as pigs in muck,company logo baseball cap and tee shirt seemsto givethem a bit of pride and one upmanship over their mates

[Trojan]

raveydavey wrote: There is an interesting article in one of the Sundays today commenting on how building an economy which relies on us delivering pizza to each other, going shopping and doing up houses to sell on wasn't perhaps the best idea in the world....The death of the manufacturing industries is often blamed on the Conservative (Thatcher) regime, but under the Tories manufacturing only dropped from 25% to 22% of GDP. Under New Labour it has dropped from 22% to 12%.The thing is that manufacturing over here simply cannot compete on cost with overseas where staff have far fewer (if any) rights, precious little 'elf and safety interference and where working for buttons per week is a bloody good wage by comparison with what the next bloke earns. Presumably "one of the Sundays" is either the Mail, Express, Telegraph or Times. Someone is using statistics creatively. The British Steel Industry was effectively annhiliated under Thatcher. The one industry towns of Consett and Corby in particularlost their one industry completely. But Sheffield and Scunthorpe too. What happened to coal goes without saying. But there was also shipbuilding and all the anciliary trades associtated with it. In my own speciality earthmoving equipment Caterpillar closed its production down in the UK, as did Track Marshall (Fowlers) Case, David Brown, Priestman and Samsung (based near Harrogate). Leyland Motors all but disappeared as did the ROF (Vickers) at Barmbow. This government's record may be bad but there is no way it can be compared to the devastation wrought by Thatcher's wrongheaded policies - especially in her first term.

[alanlad]

Doesn't it all come under one heading... capatalism! When we sold our company in 1980, the incoming directors said that in twenty years time the uk would only be a service industry. How true they were. The fact that is that, as has been pointed out, it's the sharholders that dictate and they are only in it for profit, nothing more...and that includes the people who run our pension schemes!

[simonm]

Globalisation is coming Peeps.    

[Cardiarms]

Botany Bay, Armley. Where the first shipment of Australian wool landed in the UK for processing into cloth. It's been coming for some time!