Rewind to 1988. British Steel privatised by the government of the evil whore who I refuse to name. Fast forward to now. Thousands more jobs under threat in the UK steel industry. The nation that used to be the world's largest steel producer; the fifth largest economy in the world. What, that she laid her vile, corrupt hands on, will be next? Or is it now all ****ed? An evil, evil whore.
Oh it's a phooked Ship building, car building, coal is gone. Not much in its place but hey... that there lahndan is doing fine banking so who cares.
All traditional, large-scale industries in Britain were ****ed by Thatcherism - some just take longer than others for the bump to show.
Mweh.... Those industries would be fecked due to China and India anyway...unless we subsidise them nationally at a loss or copy their format of paying workers two pence a day..... Time to move on...we innovated when we created those industries a hundred years + ago...we need to innovate again.
I'm not an expert. Did Thatcher do it too soon rather than market led..yes. but it was going to happen. The real disgrace is successive govts in the last 50 years putting feck all into R&D or at least giving all the tax perks to finance sector to encourage private enterprise rather than other areas. Nuclear Industry..getting the French in to do it rather than us being world leaders on it. Technology based development...we are notorious for inventing **** then letting other countries develop the actual business. Medical Research. Even the fad for renewable energy...we threw money at little projects rather than big money at advancing one...forget even the environment, it should have been done to make us independent from Arabs and Russians...Instead we spent billions on military intervention to prop up the Arseholes and the oil market. Just think what technologies we could have developed if we had given that money to Universities for R & D...and off shoot private businesses. As I said I'm not a genius but we produce them...should have had the balls to give them the support.
I agree with pretty much all of that. penicillin, the internet, jet engine and lately, graphene. We've given all of those away. The list is a very long one
I know a bit about this sector mate. It's not so much about chucking money at University R&D, it's more about supporting and nurturing the post grads who want to take a fledgling idea and develop it into a business. Most are commercial clueless (not surprising as it's not their core skill) so they struggle taking their ideas and creating a sustainable business out of them. They largely rely on partly funded incubation business centres and the more savvy Universities and small scale venture capitalists *cough*, provide them help, assistance and relatively small amounts of capital in exchange for an equity stake. The burn rate is very large, but some succeed but most of those get their ideas / businesses swallowed up by the large multi nationals if they've got genuine promise. As for the steel industry, we simply can't compete in the World market due to our cost base. Now China is slowing the price is tumbling and we're uncompetitive, without subsidy it's not commercially viable. The question should be, what's the greater cost - a national subsidy, or the net loss of 15,000 jobs to the economy - but that equation doesn't figure in the Tory mindset, as the OP suggests, it stems back to HER ultimately.
Sorry mate that's kind of what I meant by off shoot business's just didn't put it well. As you and RHC have said...we come up with plenty buy don't support it past that stage. As for the 15k jobs..that's why it annoys me. These industries have been struggling for years and it was inevitable and nothing has been put in place to move on...no new "industry" has been started to take over in these geographical areas... there has been ample time to develop. Both parties just kissed the banking sectors arse because it's money for nothing until it goes Tits up. "Northern Powerhouse " my arse.....
It's the same over here. We have relied disproportionately on public sector jobs as private sector didn't come here during the troubles... Peace process invested millions from yank land, EU etc...what popped up? Bank call centres centralised in Belfast etc...which then went away again.. That and Tourism and Service Industry.
Given the recruitment I'm involved in is biotech and life science, I deal with these types of organisation on a daily basis. You've called it pretty accurately there, Tobes. Steel = get the ****er subsidised. Result = won't happen A ****ing disgrace
When Charles II came back to the throne during the Restoration they dug up the body of Cromwell and had a public execution. If ever the Tories are booted out again, then whoever put doing that to her corpse would get my vote.
There is no doubt that the UK steel industry was in decline over decades and that this didn't just happen now or the last few years. There is no way an economy like the uk's can compete with likes of China and India in this type of industry. The simple equation of cheap labour was obvious. The question now is what to do. It seems that the closure of port talbot for example in Wales would not not only after the 10,000 employees there but also the others dependent on it. A total of nearly 50000 people in a small town. So the equation should not just be simple economics. Nationalisation probably would not be viable. The misery of unemployment , the cost of the unemployment benefits and all associated consequences (poor health, criminality, alcoholism etc) have to be factored in. Difficult choice for any government but let's hope that for once the people of these towns are put first.
The tories couldn't give a flying ****, other than the impact on employment stats and they'll massage those anyway. ****s.
Labour under Blair were the great unemployment figures massages, look how many people transferred to invalidity benefit as that is not counted in the unemployment figures, did such a massive amount of people suddenly become invalids?
All governments have manipulated the unemployment figures to make it look great for their own egos. Same as asylum figures or illegals they haven't a clue of the real figures their either. Just manipulated by whichever **** happens to be in power at the time. Just a world full of ****s. and not the useful type either.
The thing is... when the next war comes who will be the first ones crying for steel to build rifles and ships.... yea hthe southern tory nonces who closed the industries. You can bet your fat arses ze germans steel industry is still ticking along as is coal.
