Quote:
Originally Posted by SlowOne
Manufacturing is such a dumb thing to do - which is why France and Germany have moved into growth while we are still in recession. Oh, they have a large manufacturing sector, so that can't be right!!
I work for one of the major manufacturers in the country, that has continued to invest in its facilities for the last five years, and just announced another three years of investment - we are talking £100s of millions. Our problem? We can't get enough people with a good education, and we watch the Government throw £200bn at the banks and about £100m at industry. And as for the idea that if we had relied on manufacturing we would be broke - tell that to Toyota, Honda, Sony, Rolls-Royce, British Aerospace, Alenia, Westland, GKN, Renishaw and any number of other World leaders in their markets. Industry is not British Steel and Rover, and never has been.
There is no simple solution, and there is no chance that we will take it apart and rebuild it. To do that we'd all have to agree to something, and one look at this thread tells you that's not going to happen. It would mean that we would have to compromise, something unlikely in the 'me' generation.
That's Griffin's problem, and the reason he can never make his policies work. When push comes to shove, we will never agree to it as we are not prepared to compromise for the overall good, and no single-issue party has ever managed to govern - even the Greens, and we mostly agree with them!!
Oh well, tomorrow I'll go back to being an engineer, and as Alfonso says, be regarded as someone with dirty hands turning a handle. Monday's good though, I'll be in a clean factory developing a new method of making a part that halves costs, doubles capability and will keep production in the UK.  |
If we were so good at manufacturing we'd have bought out those foreign companies listed, not the other way around!! It's taken those foreign companies running things (and doing things our unions would have never accepted from UK owners before them) to make the UK plants work, which should tell you something! I'm not denying we can he good at production, in the manufacturing businesses I've worked in it's the total lack of customer focus and basic economics which is killing them, the actual production side works well! Unfortunately they have been obsessed with making the products they want, in the way they want, and "whatever it costs", regardless of what the customer actually wants or will pay for it, madness!!
In contrast, the service industry businesses I have been in have been ruthlessly customer focussed and performed much better economically because of it!
The reason banking has been given more money is because it has had a one off balance sheet problem requiring capital, which will more than likely be more than paid back in full! Over the last 50 years manufacturing has had no end of help/investment/grants etc. A lot of the manufacturing businesses demanding government money in the downturn are fundamentally weak anyway, unlike the banks! In the US Ford/GM being classic examples, it's not just here in the UK!
And it's so simplistic to say manufacturing must be good because Germany/France have come out of recession faster, it's just as easy to say it's because they don't speak English, or like Garlic/Sausages, there's no proof it's linked rather than coincidence! What's far more likely is they have recovered better due to lower debt going in to the downturn, so less gov funds have been soaked up in filling in debt holes, and more has gone into actual stimulating of the economy, unlike here, due to our gov and personal debt levels!
No one wants to blame that though do they, as it require personal responsibility instead of blaming banks and engaging in class warfare!! Reminds me of the Monty Python sketch on reversing class!