Whatever happened to the British Engineering Industry ?

Discuss large and small companies here.

topkit
Posts: 806
Joined: Mon Sep 22, 2008 11:55 pm
Real name: David
Location: KENT
Has thanked: 75 times
Been thanked: 179 times
Flag: Great Britain

Re: Whatever happened to the British Engineering Industry ?

Post #21 by topkit » Sat Dec 07, 2013 12:51 am

That's exactly my point Martyn, also these water companies say how they need to put bills up to pay for various projects, well why not re invest your profit like any small or mid sized business has to do!
A very serious problem that happens down here in the south east is Water Shortage, several years ago a certain mp with two Jags aka Mr Prescott initiated a massive building programme but after all of the building of 1000,s and 1000s of houses was completed they forgot one vital infastructure that was water supply and where was it all going to come from with just same amount of resevoirs but vast housing estates all drawing from them, now i am not a professor of maths but something does not quite add up! I for one would love to see some of the old railway lines re-opened as they would surely pay for themselves but on the other hand we must not upset the cyclist that use them as country cycle paths nowadays! :D


essexpete
Posts: 4059
Joined: Fri Jul 13, 2007 12:43 am
Real name: essexpete
Has thanked: 849 times
Been thanked: 680 times

Re: Whatever happened to the British Engineering Industry ?

Post #22 by essexpete » Sat Dec 07, 2013 9:56 am

topkit wrote:That's exactly my point Martyn, also these water companies say how they need to put bills up to pay for various projects, well why not re invest your profit like any small or mid sized business has to do!
A very serious problem that happens down here in the south east is Water Shortage, several years ago a certain mp with two Jags aka Mr Prescott initiated a massive building programme but after all of the building of 1000,s and 1000s of houses was completed they forgot one vital infastructure that was water supply and where was it all going to come from with just same amount of resevoirs but vast housing estates all drawing from them, now i am not a professor of maths but something does not quite add up! I for one would love to see some of the old railway lines re-opened as they would surely pay for themselves but on the other hand we must not upset the cyclist that use them as country cycle paths nowadays! :D


Whether or not small branch lines would be viable today unless there is a big population at the end of them is debatable but in many cases the opportunity has been lost to reinstate anything relatively cheaply as sections have been sold off, bridges taken down etc. With hind sight there perhaps should have been some form of a semi moth ball.


Jeremy Rowland
Moderator
Posts: 8667
Joined: Sun Aug 05, 2007 8:36 pm
Real name: Jeremy Rowland
Has thanked: 1867 times
Been thanked: 1688 times

Re: Whatever happened to the British Engineering Industry ?

Post #23 by Jeremy Rowland » Sat Dec 07, 2013 10:57 am

topkit wrote:I think Jeremy is partially right with HS2 but i get really annoyed that we the tax payer via the Government have to foot the bill for the privatised rail companies that are all making profits and paying divedends and bonuses to everyone. Surely this money that should be reinvested by the rail companies or is the tax payer going to pay for it and then we will charge the rail companies to use it then we can all have a profit share! We are a very sucessefull little island ( little being the optimum word) because the problem is we are over crowded and it cannot continue everybody knows it but the people that need to say it are frightned to because it's un PC! We used to be the pioneers and world leaders in manufacturing but we were complacent about it and did not re-invest into more modern and efficient manufacturing equipment and we had unions that would call everyone out every five mins for the pettiest reasons just because they had so much power, i can remember as a kid when British Leyland where on strike week after week either because they wanted more money or because they had been asked to help be more productive but the Labourite left would not have it, net result the japenese step in and show us how to be productive, and its some of the unions yet again that are threatning the recovery of the UK in 2013. if you want a good example of great marketing and foward thinking and constant investment look no further than JCB what a great example to everyone in manufacturing and its still a company in private hands too. I could rant on but i will stop there as long as no one mentions that prick Ed Balls trying to slate the chancellor yesterday did't he go a nice shade of Rouge!



Yes David there is a lot of truth in what you say and I think that the unions did themselves no favours with what was BL; that **** 'Red Robbo' as he was known did not do the workers any favours. I think that perhaps we forget that the 'cold war' was on and there was certainly red influence in the unions at that time which made an awful lot of sense to the enemies of this country to try and destroy it from the inside rather than by war.
Either way the net result has not done us any favours, personally I am totally against the system that we have in power in this country because it is either for the left or the right and not for all and for common sense; how can a system work that favours one group or part of society? We need a new system that puts the countries best interests first and as you have correctly stated we are far too over populated. We need to prevent more people from coming to this country, not out of racial hatred but because we have limited space and the overflowing traffic on our roads railways and other infrastructure testify to this. The problem here is that the greedy rich system wants people here because the argument is that they generate wealth but its about time that these people were put in their place because they are on the verge of destroying this country through their gross stupidity. :evil: Rant over grrrrr

Jeremy


Mrsmackpaul
Posts: 1007
Joined: Mon May 06, 2013 11:02 am
Real name: Paul Griffiths
Has thanked: 384 times
Been thanked: 256 times
Flag: Australia

Re: Whatever happened to the British Engineering Industry ?

Post #24 by Mrsmackpaul » Sat Dec 07, 2013 11:05 am

what happened well to me a dumb ass Aussie its pretty simple you lot joined the E U which meant that all your protected export markets around the commonwealth wearnt protected anymore as here we took all the import dutys off so we stopped buying British cars and trucks and tractors and motors and the list goes on and on because the UK stopped buying our farm produce ect and farming was our main export then which gave all of you cheap food. And the other big problem was the UK trucks tractors cars ect were not suitable for Australian conditions and we only bought them because just like your country folk we shop on price but once that price discount was eroded away that was the end .UK tractors wearnt big enough for Aussie farms we were joining two together for years I think along time before the UK had triple 'D's and UK trucks were just slow hot under powered were as yanky trucks and tractors were a lot more suited.As for cars well they wearnt even close to what we needed once the Japanese flood gate opened there was no stopping it just some quick thoughts from the other side of the world
Paul
Your better to die trying than live on your knees begging


topkit
Posts: 806
Joined: Mon Sep 22, 2008 11:55 pm
Real name: David
Location: KENT
Has thanked: 75 times
Been thanked: 179 times
Flag: Great Britain

Re: Whatever happened to the British Engineering Industry ?

Post #25 by topkit » Sat Dec 07, 2013 12:38 pm

Good day sport! I am not sure we should be talking to you in Aus after the spanking that we are getting in the Cricket at the moment :D Way back in the late 60' or early 70's my parents voted like many to join a thing called the Common Market what they did not vote for was this corrupt European union fiasco that they run in Brussels taking in millions a day and this corrupt joke does'nt even show its books on what happens to all of this money! I often hear these so called business leaders telling us we must not leave the EU, well i like many have a bit of news as i the little person also used to deal in Europe as an Export Sales Manager i sold to France, Germany, Eire, Netherlands and also further afield in the USA and Canada our company was in manufacturing and we produced producs for specific industry that everyone wanted so wether we were in the EU or not it did'nt make a scrap of difference, i saw all of these countries in Europe go over to the Euro and everyone that i spoke to hated it and said it was the worst thing that their countries had done everything immediately got more expensive i used have varying discounts to help with the strong pound and weakening Euro, we all now what the Euro is worth now. What we need over here is Entrepreneurs that can produce items that well made and our export markets/ customers require, just like JCB but unfortunately this country or the left of this country don't like this type of person especially if they make lots of money and don't give it to our needy scum that don't want to work or put back into the system just take out all of the time. People who work hard and employ staff should be applauded and not hauled over the coals as its these very people that are helping this small island to move on and help get us out of this recession, Things have changed vastly since our days of heavy engineering but there are plenty of other things that we can capitalise on if we are if Brussels allows us to, Don't get me wrong when i say i have nothing against people earning a lot of money as i do resent the banking freternity paying themselves millions for doing not alot for the country and it's still happening but these are not clever and skilled people that we really need they are a bunch of jumped up barrow boys that have large egos how the hell can they justify themselves 6 figure bonuses i really do not know :arrrrgh:


Mrsmackpaul
Posts: 1007
Joined: Mon May 06, 2013 11:02 am
Real name: Paul Griffiths
Has thanked: 384 times
Been thanked: 256 times
Flag: Australia

Re: Whatever happened to the British Engineering Industry ?

Post #26 by Mrsmackpaul » Sat Dec 07, 2013 8:15 pm

I cant really comment on the EU as Im not close enough to the scene to give a balanced view however a lot the problems that you describe are the same the developed world over . We had a prime minister Paul Keating that back in the 80's said we could no longer ride on the sheeps back we must become the clever country and what he was really saying was we no longer wanted blue collar workers lets all go to uni ! In the 70's we were told we must play on a level playing field so we got rid of all of our industry protection problem is our trading partners didnt it only took 10 or 15 years and it the manufacturing was all but gone. There is a common saying in Australia that in the 60's there was 50 people supporting one on welfare now it is 5-1 but the biggest single change we had was when the UK joined the common market and we have never recovered as I dont think the UK has either it all must have seemed like a good idea at the time but was it worth it all now I suppose we all can be a judge on that seeya
Paul
Your better to die trying than live on your knees begging

User avatar

Topic author
XS650
Posts: 1969
Joined: Fri Oct 17, 2008 3:22 pm
Real name: craig
Location: North Yorks
Has thanked: 153 times
Been thanked: 373 times
Flag: Great Britain

Re: Whatever happened to the British Engineering Industry ?

Post #27 by XS650 » Wed Aug 06, 2014 12:19 pm

David there is a lot of truth in what you say and I think that the unions did themselves no favours with what was BL; that **** 'Red Robbo' as he was known did not do the workers any favours. I think that perhaps we forget that the 'cold war' was on and there was certainly red influence in the unions at that time which made an awful lot of sense to the enemies of this country to try and destroy it from the inside rather than by war.
Either way the net result has not done us any favours, personally I am totally against the system that we have in power in this country because it is either for the left or the right and not for all and for common sense; how can a system work that favours one group or part of society? We need a new system that puts the countries best interests first and as you have correctly stated we are far too over populated. We need to prevent more people from coming to this country, not out of racial hatred but because we have limited space and the overflowing traffic on our roads railways and other infrastructure testify to this. The problem here is that the greedy rich system wants people here because the argument is that they generate wealth but its about time that these people were put in their place because they are on the verge of destroying this country through their gross stupidity. :evil: Rant over grrrrr


Just read this Jeremy , how very true , governments can only plan for 5 years ahead which is nothing in construction terms or anything else , so quite often we have 5 years of going in one direction then a complete reversal or u turn and spend 5 years going in a different direction . No business would survive like this and it does the country no good at all.
After the war Germany and Japan were basically run by small non political comittees of talented people who just wanted to rebuild their countries, and look how successfull they were. Maybe we should try the same , can't do worse than the 650 MP's 's we have in Westminster plus all the rest !
Craig
Not all those who wander are lost.


tctractors
Posts: 772
Joined: Sun Sep 30, 2007 9:16 pm
Real name: tony coates
Been thanked: 63 times
Flag: Great Britain

Re: Whatever happened to the British Engineering Industry ?

Post #28 by tctractors » Wed Aug 06, 2014 9:27 pm

Just thought I would bring up a few points, on the common market "EU" thing, the U.K. never realy waided in to deep, as we did not get rid of Sterling (Pound) the biggest loss through the E.U. was a lack of Chedder Cheese from Canada, I cannot think of anything from Australia that we missed other than the odd cricket ball, I still think the U.K. has some top engineering skills and manufacture locations, the oil industry also aircraft components that we build are World leaders so the U.K. still has a few lights on, things between Europe and the U.K. are going to change in the near future for better or the other so be it.
tctractors


Mrsmackpaul
Posts: 1007
Joined: Mon May 06, 2013 11:02 am
Real name: Paul Griffiths
Has thanked: 384 times
Been thanked: 256 times
Flag: Australia

Re: Whatever happened to the British Engineering Industry ?

Post #29 by Mrsmackpaul » Wed Aug 06, 2014 10:31 pm

tctractors wrote:Just thought I would bring up a few points, on the common market "EU" thing, the U.K. never realy waided in to deep, as we did not get rid of Sterling (Pound) the biggest loss through the E.U. was a lack of Chedder Cheese from Canada, I cannot think of anything from Australia that we missed other than the odd cricket ball, I still think the U.K. has some top engineering skills and manufacture locations, the oil industry also aircraft components that we build are World leaders so the U.K. still has a few lights on, things between Europe and the U.K. are going to change in the near future for better or the other so be it.
tctractors

:lol:

well there you go but the UK bought wheat barley oats beef mutton dairy products canned fruit and no doubt a whole heap of steel they bought whole heap of wood as well and I dont doubt they have some top engineering skills as well but you no the craziest thing all this can be turned around over night and get the country going again but the powers that be have got to want to and they only will when public opinion changes and here lies the problem

never waided in to deep you have got to be kidding me you lot jumped in boots and all dropped the commonwealth like a hot potato

Paul
Your better to die trying than live on your knees begging


martyn williams
Posts: 6393
Joined: Mon Nov 03, 2008 8:06 pm
Real name: MARTYN WILLIAMS
Location: South Wales
Has thanked: 296 times
Been thanked: 359 times

Re: Whatever happened to the British Engineering Industry ?

Post #30 by martyn williams » Thu Aug 07, 2014 5:32 pm

I work for a nationalised German rail company that runs rail freight in the UK :dizzy:
mARTYN


Return to “Companies”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 10 guests