Britain Is Selling Its Family Jewels

Britain is slowly selling off its wealth producers to foreigners who are asset stripping our leading manufacturing and defence industries, our sports clubs (14 0f the 20 premier league football clubs are owned by foreigners) and our retail sector.
 
Asda has already fallen to predators, Morrisons are on the brink and now Sainsbury is under threat.
 
When will it end?

Why does it matter ?

Market forces rule.

That's what I was told when my job was taken away from me three times.

There was a deliberate government policy to destroy manufacturing industry, in particular medium and heavy engineering, in order to make the country a service based economy. Anyone remember whose bright idea that was?

The fastest decline in output and employment in manufacturing industry occurred during the period 1997 to 2007 - which were the Blair and Brown years.

So what?
Once the ball is rolling it's not easy to stop.
I was there and so were a lot of my contemporaries, do you think we imagined being made redundant?

Purwell

I am the first to recognise that many people faced employment hardships during that period. I too was not immune.  I was merely responding to your statement "There was a deliberate government policy to destroy manufacturing industry, in particular medium and heavy engineering, in order to make the country a service based economy. Anyone remember whose bright idea that was?"

One factor over the past 30 years is the huge increase in robots and automation in manufacture which has impacted employment levels. Over this period the UK value of manufacturing output has remained largely the same, but the number of people employed in the industry has fallen significantly. In general, automation is not a significant factor in the service industry which is why employment levels are growing alongside it's growth in value.

I wonder why, as I was a designer of special purpose machinery and mechanical handling equipment, I wasn't laughing all the way to the bank.

We make nothing significant in this country now, No TVs, no lorries, no conveyors, no convering machinery, no light bulbs or lamps, no plumbing components, no buses, no railway rolling stock or tractive units and even the cars that we do make are mostly badge engineering using a lot of imported parts.

You are correct Purwell - and its a worry.

We are not alone though - the motor industry almost World wide is a complex supply chain with most brands importing major components including that bastion of engineering Germany.

You will find Renault drive chains in Datsuns, American Tesla components in the latest Mercedes, BMW engines in Morgans, the list is endless.

I wonder why that myth of German engineering still survives, it certainly is not my experience at all.