Over 24,000 manufacturing jobs lost in Hampshire (From Daily Echo)

Not only the recession and stalled recovery. This has been going on for years, and most of the blame can be out at pricing ourselves out of the market/cheaper imports.

Not just pricing etc. Thatcher thought that the City was the answer to all our prayers and needs. Some of us knew she was wrong by 1982. Sadly the wider electorate did not.

Not just pricing etc. Thatcher thought that the City was the answer to all our prayers and needs. Some of us knew she was wrong by 1982. Sadly the wider electorate did not.

Chas O'Bursledon wrote:
Not just pricing etc. Thatcher thought that the City was the answer to all our prayers and needs. Some of us knew she was wrong by 1982. Sadly the wider electorate did not.

True and she was warned that her couse of action would do damage to the economy and to jobs, then the 6 million people she made unemployed but she carried on with the same old 1920's actions and it just got worse and still getting worse by the day.

This news is awful and realy sums up successive Governments totally bankrupt attitudes to manufacturing. rather than invest in manufacturing , both new Labour and Conservatives have embraced a Neo Liberal agenda which favours the service sector instead actually making things.
.
Hulla baloo lives in an alternative reality. He would do he is a typical Tory and they have a track record of shame in this area. Why is Germany, with very restrictive and in the UK's view, inflexible labour laws still keeping its successful manufacturing base? It is because successive German government value and invest in manufacturing as opposed to the UK in the last 30 years which couldnt care less!!

southy wrote:

Chas O'Bursledon wrote:
Not just pricing etc. Thatcher thought that the City was the answer to all our prayers and needs. Some of us knew she was wrong by 1982. Sadly the wider electorate did not.

True and she was warned that her couse of action would do damage to the economy and to jobs, then the 6 million people she made unemployed but she carried on with the same old 1920's actions and it just got worse and still getting worse by the day.

Poppycock. The usual fictions by Southy.

The number of unemployed people in the UK peaked in 1986, at
just over three million (over 10%).

http://www.parliamen
t.uk/documents/commo
ns/lib/research/rp99
/rp99-111.pdf

After that unemployment steadily fell through private sector job growth. Eventually a budget surplus was accomplished. And the UK ran a budget surplus until Gordon Brown and Labour went on a public sector spending binge putting an additional 1 million on the public sector purse.

After Labour running the show for 13 years, no wonder we are starting to look like Greece.

http://www.dailymail
.co.uk/news/article-
2007949/The-Big-Fat-
Greek-Gravy-Train-A-
special-investigatio
n-EU-funded-culture-
greed-tax-evasion-sc
andalous-waste.html

Ant Smoking MP wrote:
This news is awful and realy sums up successive Governments totally bankrupt attitudes to manufacturing. rather than invest in manufacturing , both new Labour and Conservatives have embraced a Neo Liberal agenda which favours the service sector instead actually making things.
.
Hulla baloo lives in an alternative reality. He would do he is a typical Tory and they have a track record of shame in this area. Why is Germany, with very restrictive and in the UK's view, inflexible labour laws still keeping its successful manufacturing base? It is because successive German government value and invest in manufacturing as opposed to the UK in the last 30 years which couldnt care less!!

You have to consider that German manufacturing has been based on high quality products- VW, Porsche, Bosch, Siemens etc. These are high end goods of which there are no UK equivalents. Had we focused on quality rather than quantity we could have competed against the likes of Korea and Japan instead of failing as we did. The problems started in the 60's by the 80's it was too late.

Kia has moved it's factory to India and
the production line workers there think that
they are in heaven on £20.00 a week.
How on earth can we compete with
that?

Condor Man wrote:

Ant Smoking MP wrote:
This news is awful and realy sums up successive Governments totally bankrupt attitudes to manufacturing. rather than invest in manufacturing , both new Labour and Conservatives have embraced a Neo Liberal agenda which favours the service sector instead actually making things.
.
Hulla baloo lives in an alternative reality. He would do he is a typical Tory and they have a track record of shame in this area. Why is Germany, with very restrictive and in the UK's view, inflexible labour laws still keeping its successful manufacturing base? It is because successive German government value and invest in manufacturing as opposed to the UK in the last 30 years which couldnt care less!!

You have to consider that German manufacturing has been based on high quality products- VW, Porsche, Bosch, Siemens etc. These are high end goods of which there are no UK equivalents. Had we focused on quality rather than quantity we could have competed against the likes of Korea and Japan instead of failing as we did. The problems started in the 60's by the 80's it was too late.

Are you saying, seperate to many top business leaders in the UK, that we dont produce top quality products? I think you should re read what Tory leaders say.
.
Its all about investment. Harking back to the 60s doesnt mean anything. the reality is we had a manufacturing economy and successive governments sacrificed it for a quick buck.
.
Its investment we needed in the 70s, 80s 90s and the 00s!!
We never got it while Germany did.

Governments of all stripes have let manufacturing decline since the 1960s. And let's not forget the role of some irresponsible trade unions in this.

But we the general public have also played our part. I worked for Fiat Auto during the late 70s/ early 80s when they produced some eye-wateringly bad cars. But the Italians kept buying them and eventually the cars got better. Around the same time BL produced some rubbish cars too. The British bought Datsuns.

Its not just about governments and legislation. It should be about our consciences, too. Our bus company's should buy British built buses, train operators from British factories and we the public should buy cars, vacuum cleaners, whatever from British factories. Perhaps we need a directory or something to help us know how many British jobs are involved with purchases we make.

The UK excels at high tech, low volume, quality added manufacturing. However, this can't hope to 'pay the bills'. We just have to suck it up. The 'new world' has us banged to rights.