The UKs manufacturing industry was destroyed by Countries that were in a position to offer cheaper alternatives, the simple truth is that we could buy the products cheaper abroad, cheaper steel products, cheaper warships, cheaper aircraft, cheaper coal, cheaper everything, the consumer wants the cheapest price, occasionally we make a fuss about how something is made and if the workers producing the garments or the coffee are paid a fair wage but for the most part we don't think about were it came from or to what cost to the indigineous population of the Country we bought it from.
Unions wanted us to buy the dearer products from the UK and quite rightly so, that was thier job, the government (all of them) wanted to balance the books and get products at the best possible price.
When you offer a bag of coal to someone that cost £20 to produce but can only sell for £10 something has to be looked at, add to that someone abroad offering the same bag for £5 and there is a situation to be looked at.
Unions were making demands that NO government could hope to agree to if they were to give the best service to the Country as a whole. Demands that even many of thier members didn't believe they wanted or needed, Governments did not look at alternatives to simply buying everything from abroad, there was a balance to be looked at, a £5 bag of coal, is on the surface cheaper and a wise move, but not if the bag of coal has hidden costs of another £5 for unemployment benefits etc, profitable mines could have stayed open, non-profitable mines could either be improved or closed, certain ships could have been built in Britain whilst importing a part of our fleet.
I don't know all the answers but it seems that everyone governments and unions alike just drew a line in the sand and would not compromise or negotiate.
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The great divide
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Sex God
Quote by Staggerlee_BB
I agree to a point. I however apportion most blame to the unions who were out of control and had to be rained in by some one. They were attacking Government under the guise of protecting workers and that was a lie.
And where are these industries now the threat of the unions has been removed ??? on their fucking knees if they still exist ....bravo Mrs T. an absolute triumph
I can only assume the industry's you mention were no longer viable. Unions looking after workers is one thing, but when they push wages up and up, the eventual effect has to be we can no longer compete with country's who have lower welfare standards and cheaper employment.
Mrs T went a long time ago, we have also had 18 years of a Labour government since that time.
Sex God
Quote by MidsCouple24
The UKs manufacturing industry was destroyed by Countries that were in a position to offer cheaper alternatives, the simple truth is that we could buy the products cheaper abroad, cheaper steel products, cheaper warships, cheaper aircraft, cheaper coal, cheaper everything, the consumer wants the cheapest price, occasionally we make a fuss about how something is made and if the workers producing the garments or the coffee are paid a fair wage but for the most part we don't think about were it came from or to what cost to the indigineous population of the Country we bought it from.
Unions wanted us to buy the dearer products from the UK and quite rightly so, that was thier job, the government (all of them) wanted to balance the books and get products at the best possible price.
When you offer a bag of coal to someone that cost £20 to produce but can only sell for £10 something has to be looked at, add to that someone abroad offering the same bag for £5 and there is a situation to be looked at.
Unions were making demands that NO government could hope to agree to if they were to give the best service to the Country as a whole. Demands that even many of thier members didn't believe they wanted or needed, Governments did not look at alternatives to simply buying everything from abroad, there was a balance to be looked at, a £5 bag of coal, is on the surface cheaper and a wise move, but not if the bag of coal has hidden costs of another £5 for unemployment benefits etc, profitable mines could have stayed open, non-profitable mines could either be improved or closed, certain ships could have been built in Britain whilst importing a part of our fleet.
I don't know all the answers but it seems that everyone governments and unions alike just drew a line in the sand and would not compromise or negotiate.
When you have a nationalised coal steel and power industry,when you have nationalised railways ...surely it is common sense for them to buy each others products ... you effectively have a nil sum whatever the market price may be .... decentralised purchasing and the import of raw materials is under these circumstances a nonsense .... who's fault ?? not the unions as you say
What British industry required was investment in plant to bring our product up to standard,what it required was for government to reel in the increasingly autonomous and corporate management and directors of nationalised industry and point out a few home truths to them.
Coal .. much of the imported coal was heavily subsidised by the governments of the countries in which it was mined ... it wasn't in the long run cheaper it merely had a lower price, any money spent on it was lost to the British economy,that spent on higher priced British coal or steel or cars or ships or or or stayed in the British economy and enriched the people of this country ...more expensive certainly but also a much lower cost
Quote by Bluefish2009
I can only assume the industry's you mention were no longer viable. Unions looking after workers is one thing, but when they push wages up and up, the eventual effect has to be we can no longer compete with country's who have lower welfare standards and cheaper employment.
Mrs T went a long time ago, we have also had 18 years of a Labour government since that time.
And yet we still need coal,steel,energy,
The ensuing years of 'labour'* government are a red herring,it is many many years since a corpse was brought back to life,and even then it was just a story in a book
Blue (serious question) did you support the countryside alliance when they opposed the ban on foxhunting ?? Why ??
*the inverted commas are to signify my belief that the last labour government was that it name only .... it's policies certainly bore no relation to the Labour party I grew up with ... That Labour party would have been ashamed to have it's name associated with the Blair/Brown version)
I am old enough to remember privatisation and the advent of VAT, in both cases the opposition was humphing and harring in parliament with shouts of shame, shame, as they do, The Labour Government shouted loud vowing to end privatisation and abolish VAT as soon as they got back into power, history says the rest, they did do something with VAT, they raised it to 20% not long ago.
Sex God
Quote by Staggerlee_BB
I can only assume the industry's you mention were no longer viable. Unions looking after workers is one thing, but when they push wages up and up, the eventual effect has to be we can no longer compete with country's who have lower welfare standards and cheaper employment.
Mrs T went a long time ago, we have also had 18 years of a Labour government since that time.
And yet we still need coal,steel,energy,
The ensuing years of 'labour'* government are a red herring,it is many many years since a corpse was brought back to life,and even then it was just a story in a book
Blue (serious question) did you support the countryside alliance when they opposed the ban on foxhunting ?? Why ??
*the inverted commas are to signify my belief that the last labour government was that it name only .... it's policies certainly bore no relation to the Labour party I grew up with ... That Labour party would have been ashamed to have it's name associated with the Blair/Brown version)
On the highlighted, we actually agree. Even so, there were few policy's of theirs that I liked at all.
No, I have done nothing to support the countryside alliance, but I did everything I could to support the fox hunters, the reason for this was I firmly believe that this is the most humane way to control foxes.
