Re: Keeping Dead Industries Alive....
Quote:
Originally Posted by GEaston
(Post 1053302)
Stanley - you can't seriously be suggesting that British Leyland produced something that people wanted to buy are you?
Striking and high cost of product was certainly part of the problem but the death of the UK car industry was that we produced absolute crap (Princess, Maxi, Rover SD1, the list is long). Compared to Audi, BMW, or any Japanese brand we were a joke. That industry had to go.
With the unions gone and massive private investment (you might want to read that last sentence again....) what emerged in it's place is the same skilled labour force producing quality cars for foreign owners like the giant Nissan plant at Sunderland. The rest were taken over - Tata owns Landrover/Range Rover, VW bought Bentley, BMW took Rolls Royce or closed (British Leyland, MG, TVR). 80% of UK car production on behalf of the now foreign owners is exported from the UK.
By any measure (jobs, suppliers, inward investment, product quality) this is progress. BBC News - UK car exports hit record despite European market slump
Car producing capital of Europe no less Britain now producing MORE cars than Germany: How the UK has become the car production capital of Europe | Mail Online
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Strange isn't it, you started this thread claiming it was a debate, a debate that started with a link to someone else's opinions because you didn't put forward any of your own, (c'mon is famous for that kind of thing), now you no longer wish to debate you prefer to lecture, a lecture that no doubt would be fitting for any secondary school class but not for folk that lived through the times.
Yes BL was crap, but it was crap from the top down, inferior designs, materials and man management, huh, man management now that was a joke, yes there were plenty of strikes I've already said I'm against such action, yes there were some that would strike over nothing and yes there was a management system in place that seemed to go out of it's way to ensure that those strikes came about and continued.
It isn't just the Unions that have gone, it is the terrible Management that has also been removed, I think you will find that the system now in place works because everyone in these companies is now proud of their product and at last they all work together.
No longer is work disrupted by either side because there isn't an either side just a team working together with one aim, get the best product we can make through the door on time.
Something that never happened at BL or any of the other divided factories.
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