Whatever happened to the British Engineering Industry ?

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Mrsmackpaul
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Re: Whatever happened to the British Engineering Industry ?

Post #41 by Mrsmackpaul » Mon Aug 11, 2014 10:28 pm

there we go there is a lot more being built than I thought which is a good thing as all we ever hear is bad news so great to hear things are still being built and sold now all I have to do is find some one to export me a CAT D5B VHP crawler with linkage then things will be really looking up

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Re: Whatever happened to the British Engineering Industry ?

Post #42 by davemadden » Tue Nov 10, 2015 5:45 pm

XS650 wrote:Thanks Jeremy , I know its a 'curates egg' question but would be interested in peoples thoughts , it grieves me that millions of pounds of taxpayers money is now spent on imported trucks because we don't make any .
I remember being shocked in the early 80s when our local Coastguard received a Daihatsu 4wd . Every government/council/ nationalised industry vehicle I had ever seen before this was British made . I remember questions been asked in Parliament when British Rail bought a few very specialised Mercedes Unimogs.
We did lack investment ,thinking of some some vehicles that were top of the game in 1965 for quality and price , the world could not get enough of them .
Mini , Triumph Bonneville , Land Rovers , Bedford TKs
What were we producing in 1975 ,virtually exactly the same product (with added poor quality) -
What was the world buying -
Nissan Cherrys , Honda CB750s , Toyota Land Cruisers , European trucks

Craig



Looking for a pickup truck in the mid seventies - only one was a little Mini - bought a Datsun

British trucks with under powered engines - Gardner 180 trying to pull 30 tonnes. This is the reason the foreigners prospered at our expense. They made stuff we wanted


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Re: Whatever happened to the British Engineering Industry ?

Post #43 by essexpete » Wed Nov 11, 2015 12:23 am

Several factors:

Poor top management that were past their best (or perhaps never the best) relying on knackered tooling and out of date products.

Stroppy unions that crucified working weeks of the years by the shed load.

Other countries emerging as manufacturers with cheaper labour, energy and raw materials.


edit I did not realise this was a revisited thread :D :dizzy:


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Re: Whatever happened to the British Engineering Industry ?

Post #44 by Jeremy Rowland » Wed Nov 11, 2015 8:59 am

essexpete wrote:Several factors:

Poor top management that were past their best (or perhaps never the best) relying on knackered tooling and out of date products.

Stroppy unions that crucified working weeks of the years by the shed load.

Other countries emerging as manufacturers with cheaper labour, energy and raw materials.


edit I did not realise this was a revisited thread :D :dizzy:



Very true Pete :thumbup: the Gardner engines company being a very sad but perfect example; the Brits also tend to be traditionalists too with the "well we've done it like that since 1800 and it works okay so why change it" attitude. We never learn only the hard way anyway. ;)

Jeremy


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Re: Whatever happened to the British Engineering Industry ?

Post #45 by pv83 » Tue May 31, 2016 6:57 pm

Well, it's not all that bad, apart from the thing that occurred to the British Metal workers, or whatever name it's got these days...
Fact is that there's still a engineering industry, maybe not well known with Joe Average, but to give you an idea;
- Terex in Motherwell
- Caterpillar in Peterlee
- Liebherr in Sunderland
- Nissan in Sunderland
- JCB in... forgot the name I'm afraid :doh:

Just to name a few, and then there's the Rolls Royce airplane engine works, and obviously the car division alongside Bentley, Land Rover, the Cummins works, and McLaren in Woking...
Now these are the ones that spring to mind, but there are several other smaller companies that are still much in business...wether it be for the aircraft industry or off shore industry, they all play important roles in the trading of the UK. Maybe they're not British owned any more, the fact remains that there's still a engineering industry...

Cheers, Patrick

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Re: Whatever happened to the British Engineering Industry ?

Post #46 by XS650 » Thu Jun 02, 2016 2:48 pm

Not to forget Komatsu in Birtley, ! see their products on delivery trucks all the time usually heading to Tees Docks for export.

Still think we cocked up tho , someone at BL in 70's actually noticed the entire world was buying ship loads of Jap one ton pick ups ( Hi-Lux etc) and there were plans to build one on the Sherpa chassis but it came to nought. :(
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Re: Whatever happened to the British Engineering Industry ?

Post #47 by Mrsmackpaul » Thu Jun 02, 2016 9:58 pm

Well Patrick I guess a lot of how good something is or how bad something is depends a lot on what it is measured against so maybe thats the cynic in me it's like the management of companies or politicians today say when they really make a mess of something and get caught out "there's no good looking or dwelling on the past, the past is in the past and we cant change that, we must look towards the future" and I have always said you've got to look to the past as you dont want to make the same mistakes again
I got asked the other day what I thought about the UK referendum on the UK leaving the EU, dont think they liked my answer but it made one hell of a mess when they left the Commonwealth for those that were involved and the UK has never recovered and got back to were it once was and the Commonwealth has recovered a lot but I dont think the Australia will ever forgive or forget that sad turn of events that caused huge hard ship for all Commonwealth countries also caused huge hard ship for the UK manufacturing industry as well and one it has never recovered from it and all that was from the greed from a select few that ended up shooting them selves in the foot

Paul
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Re: Whatever happened to the British Engineering Industry ?

Post #48 by pv83 » Sat Jun 04, 2016 7:38 pm

Mrsmackpaul wrote:Well Patrick I guess a lot of how good something is or how bad something is depends a lot on what it is measured against so maybe thats the cynic in me it's like the management of companies or politicians today say when they really make a mess of something and get caught out "there's no good looking or dwelling on the past, the past is in the past and we cant change that, we must look towards the future" and I have always said you've got to look to the past as you dont want to make the same mistakes again
I got asked the other day what I thought about the UK referendum on the UK leaving the EU, dont think they liked my answer but it made one hell of a mess when they left the Commonwealth for those that were involved and the UK has never recovered and got back to were it once was and the Commonwealth has recovered a lot but I dont think the Australia will ever forgive or forget that sad turn of events that caused huge hard ship for all Commonwealth countries also caused huge hard ship for the UK manufacturing industry as well and one it has never recovered from it and all that was from the greed from a select few that ended up shooting them selves in the foot

Paul


Looking back at British history, once the British dominated more then half the world... What's left of that these day's..? Only that one can speak English in just about every corner of the planet...
Is that of concern for the coming vote? Just about everybody is fed up with all them rules that's been put upon them, and what was it that was achieved actually? Well, from my point of view all the things mentioned in the last few posts... So is stepping out and give the friendly gesture really the solution to things? I don't know, I'm not some wee grey political specialist, but as you say, do we end up shooting ourselfs in the foot? If the OUT camp get's it's way, only time will tell I'm afraid...

Patrick


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Re: Whatever happened to the British Engineering Industry ?

Post #49 by Jeremy Rowland » Sat Jun 04, 2016 8:26 pm

pv83 wrote:
Mrsmackpaul wrote:Well Patrick I guess a lot of how good something is or how bad something is depends a lot on what it is measured against so maybe thats the cynic in me it's like the management of companies or politicians today say when they really make a mess of something and get caught out "there's no good looking or dwelling on the past, the past is in the past and we cant change that, we must look towards the future" and I have always said you've got to look to the past as you dont want to make the same mistakes again
I got asked the other day what I thought about the UK referendum on the UK leaving the EU, dont think they liked my answer but it made one hell of a mess when they left the Commonwealth for those that were involved and the UK has never recovered and got back to were it once was and the Commonwealth has recovered a lot but I dont think the Australia will ever forgive or forget that sad turn of events that caused huge hard ship for all Commonwealth countries also caused huge hard ship for the UK manufacturing industry as well and one it has never recovered from it and all that was from the greed from a select few that ended up shooting them selves in the foot

Paul


Looking back at British history, once the British dominated more then half the world... What's left of that these day's..? Only that one can speak English in just about every corner of the planet...
Is that of concern for the coming vote? Just about everybody is fed up with all them rules that's been put upon them, and what was it that was achieved actually? Well, from my point of view all the things mentioned in the last few posts... So is stepping out and give the friendly gesture really the solution to things? I don't know, I'm not some wee grey political specialist, but as you say, do we end up shooting ourselfs in the foot? If the OUT camp get's it's way, only time will tell I'm afraid...

Patrick



Europe has shot itself in the foot the people of Great Britain do not want to become a 'United States' of Europe this was not agreed to when we joined the EEC as it was in those days; we do not want to be ruled by Europe! :evil: As for trade well as in the above posts say it all, we have no manufacturing industry left of our own just take a look at our roads; Scania, Mercedes, Volvo and Renault trucks dominate the commercial industry and likewise many European made cars so they will NOT suddenly stop trading with us that would be financial suicide.
British people are sick of all the unwanted immigrants in this once great country of ours; people forget that we have very limited space and resources the infrastructure cannot cope with herds of unwanted foreigners, I for one am sick to my back teeth of living 'abroad' in my own country, while I cannot blame these people for wanting to better their own lives which is only natural I blame the establishment for letting them in and its those people the establishment that have a stranglehold on Europe.
Regardless of what happens in the coming vote the real 'acid test' will be when WW3 finally kicks off and France and Germany side with Russia and 'Poodle Britain' sides with the USA; don't kid yourself it could not or will not happen.
Just a few of my thoughts on the subject but in reality this is a machinery forum so lets talk diggers please. :backto:

Jeremy


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Re: Whatever happened to the British Engineering Industry ?

Post #50 by pv83 » Sat Jun 04, 2016 9:35 pm

Jeremy Rowland wrote:
pv83 wrote:
Mrsmackpaul wrote:Well Patrick I guess a lot of how good something is or how bad something is depends a lot on what it is measured against so maybe thats the cynic in me it's like the management of companies or politicians today say when they really make a mess of something and get caught out "there's no good looking or dwelling on the past, the past is in the past and we cant change that, we must look towards the future" and I have always said you've got to look to the past as you dont want to make the same mistakes again
I got asked the other day what I thought about the UK referendum on the UK leaving the EU, dont think they liked my answer but it made one hell of a mess when they left the Commonwealth for those that were involved and the UK has never recovered and got back to were it once was and the Commonwealth has recovered a lot but I dont think the Australia will ever forgive or forget that sad turn of events that caused huge hard ship for all Commonwealth countries also caused huge hard ship for the UK manufacturing industry as well and one it has never recovered from it and all that was from the greed from a select few that ended up shooting them selves in the foot

Paul


Looking back at British history, once the British dominated more then half the world... What's left of that these day's..? Only that one can speak English in just about every corner of the planet...
Is that of concern for the coming vote? Just about everybody is fed up with all them rules that's been put upon them, and what was it that was achieved actually? Well, from my point of view all the things mentioned in the last few posts... So is stepping out and give the friendly gesture really the solution to things? I don't know, I'm not some wee grey political specialist, but as you say, do we end up shooting ourselfs in the foot? If the OUT camp get's it's way, only time will tell I'm afraid...

Patrick



Europe has shot itself in the foot the people of Great Britain do not want to become a 'United States' of Europe this was not agreed to when we joined the EEC as it was in those days; we do not want to be ruled by Europe! :evil: As for trade well as in the above posts say it all, we have no manufacturing industry left of our own just take a look at our roads; Scania, Mercedes, Volvo and Renault trucks dominate the commercial industry and likewise many European made cars so they will NOT suddenly stop trading with us that would be financial suicide.
British people are sick of all the unwanted immigrants in this once great country of ours; people forget that we have very limited space and resources the infrastructure cannot cope with herds of unwanted foreigners, I for one am sick to my back teeth of living 'abroad' in my own country, while I cannot blame these people for wanting to better their own lives which is only natural I blame the establishment for letting them in and its those people the establishment that have a stranglehold on Europe.
Regardless of what happens in the coming vote the real 'acid test' will be when WW3 finally kicks off and France and Germany side with Russia and 'Poodle Britain' sides with the USA; don't kid yourself it could not or will not happen.
Just a few of my thoughts on the subject but in reality this is a machinery forum so lets talk diggers please. :backto:

Jeremy


Whatever the outcome may be, surely interesting times are coming... And don't get the impression that I don't understand your points, 'cause I certainly do, but living abroad does let you see different point of views...

I believe Mr. Churchill said something like this;
We have our own dream and our own task, we are with Europe but not of it,
We are linked but not combined, we are interested and associated but not absorbed...

Right, time to play Vera Lynn's There'll always be an England :D
And you're right Jeremy, time to talk tech stuff again :thumbup:


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