Germany once admired British workmanship – but that was a long time ago: Guardian

C_Mababejive

Some responses to this discussion serve to illustrate one of Britains biggest failures.

It is still stuck in a post war malaise and has failed to thrive. Here we are still talking carp about spitfires,the war blah blah blah..

Maybe the country should stop doting,stop looking back and look forward.

I for one am sick to death of hearing/seeing/reading about the war.

Cue a load of old pony about my lack of respect and that if it wasnt for...blah blah,id be speaking german.

chewmylegoff

Andy_L wrote: »

Combination of, in no particular order of importance of chronology.

Falling behind whilst rebuilding the bankrupt country post WW2 - no Marshall Plan money for us

erm... this is not true, we got a large slice of the marshall plan money, more than germany received.

chewmylegoff

madharrier wrote: »

Lady Thatcher killed off a moribund British manufacturing industry and made all the bright kids go into casino banking...

When thatcher came to power, 26% of GDP came from manufacturing, when she left power that was down to 22.5%.

When blair came to power, 20% of GDP came from manufacturing. When Blair resigned, that figure was down to 10%...

The share of GDP from financial services increased from 6.5% to 9% under Blair. Real estate from 12.5% to 16%.

So, now you have the facts, who killed off manufacturing and replaced it with "casino banking"?

vivatifosi

kabayiri wrote: »

I don't think it will return to the days of being a large volume employer here though. You can find metal bashing skills cheaper elsewhere.

I agree. People who don't realise that metal bashing is not coming back need to brush up on comparative and competitive advantage, and opportunity costs.

I do however find the concept of 3D printing for manufacturing fascinating. Low niche runs of specialist items are the kind of manufacturing that could return. Rapid prototyping facilities used to cost a lot to set up too, so seeing that this facility is now available at colleges like Ravensbourne is fascinating too:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/8666516/3D-printing-the-technology-that-could-re-shape-the-world.html

CLAPTON

chewmylegoff wrote: »

When thatcher came to power, 26% of GDP came from manufacturing, when she left power that was down to 22.5%.

When blair came to power, 20% of GDP came from manufacturing. When Blair resigned, that figure was down to 10%...

The share of GDP from financial services increased from 6.5% to 9% under Blair. Real estate from 12.5% to 16%.

So, now you have the facts, who killed off manufacturing and replaced it with "casino banking"?

of course, if GDP grows faster than manufacturing output then the percent attributable to manufacturing appears to decline

peteron

Lady Thatcher killed off a moribund British manufacturing industry and made all the bright kids go into casino banking

If bringing down the British manufacturing is what Lady Thatcher planed, she would be extremely proud of Gordon Brown and his colleagues for their achievements, wouldn't she?
Don’t you think it is time to deal with what is on our plat now?
I don’t believe it has nothing to do with left /right politics at all. It is to do with the culture of diminished personal responsibility and the inner understanding that a lot of people have that someone else has the obligation to take care of them.
All political parties seems to encourage this attitude and by doing this they short selling our country for cheep votes.
Any public suggestion of what the citizens should do for the country/ society is being almost immediately criticised as racist/ anti human rights....

chewmylegoff

CLAPTON wrote: »

of course, if GDP grows faster than manufacturing output then the percent attributable to manufacturing appears to decline

Yes of course. But did GDP double when Blair was in power?

vivatifosi

chewmylegoff wrote: »

When thatcher came to power, 26% of GDP came from manufacturing, when she left power that was down to 22.5%.

When blair came to power, 20% of GDP came from manufacturing. When Blair resigned, that figure was down to 10%...

It's also fair to say that manufacturing decline went hand-in-hand with technological advances. Why would any firm, anywhere, have long lines of people working on assembly when they can have robots do the same job with fewer people watching the robots and keeping the factory floor running at a lower cost?

Road_Hog

C_Mababejive wrote: »

Some responses to this discussion serve to illustrate one of Britains biggest failures.

It is still stuck in a post war malaise and has failed to thrive.

That is Marxist speak. The revisionist view and that we should be embarrassed by our past achievements. Before political correctness and Marxism took a stronghold we were a proud country that achieved many things. Since the Lefties and Marxism took over, we are forever beating ourselves up for what we were.

For a long time, a small country/island called Britain ruled a large part of the world. We set up the foundations of democracy, we set up Common Law which is still used in many parts of the world today. We gave the world the international business language.

What has fwcked up this once great country? Lefties and Marxists that try to break everything that worked okay, who brainwash our kids in school and university, who have taken charge of the BBC to broadcast their propaganda.

No, Britain used to be great, things used to work, they followed a natural order that seemed right. Now we have the opposite, we have mass immigration even though we don't have enough jobs or homes for people, but we are told we are racist if we mention it. Criminals go free instead of being locked up like they used to be. Everything has been turned on its head (deliberately) and the country has been dumbed down (think X-Factor). What was right is now classed as wrong and vice versa.

There is nothing wrong with Britain, except the Marxists that are trying to destroy it, look up the Frankfurt School 11 point plan and see how much of it you disagree with.

geneer

How is it germany can have such a strong manufacturing base and we can't.

The whole "outsourcing" argument is red herring.