[steeljack]

Alan , whats sad about this thread, and the Howard and Bullough thead is how many jobs/futures for young people in the area have been lost by the closure of these companies and others , it used to be a natural for a 15 yr old coming out of a local Secondary Modern to apply to one of the local engineering works for an apprenticeship , knowing they would get a good training and day release to the local Tech for furthur education , where the hell have all these skilled tradesmen gone? , Most (like yourself) have left the country looking for a better life , in my view sucesive (sp) British Govts. never valued what they had and threw away a generation