British Industry a personal view on
the decline of British Industry.
This paper was prepared
by Cllr Mr Allan Glass
For
presentation to C.O.P.O.V.
Preface.
Looking back to the Industrial
revolution and on through Victorian times Britain has flourished at times when
industry was at its strongest. Britain
once led the world in industrial and manufacturing methods and machinery
developments, this brought great prosperity and meaningful employment to the
workforce. Commerce banking and
general trade has at times made Britain although small in land mass a
prosperous country and enabled the spread of industry throughout the
commonwealth and the world.
Inventions and expertise are the
strength of the industrial heritage Britain has developed.
Manufacturing industry
Manufacturing industry requires
highly skilled and trained workers as well as operators of machines. The UK used to have most industries from
ship building to electronics but recently it has been transferred to foreign
countries due to industrial costs and taxes.
The UK could regain its position
within world industry with the right conditions and political outlook. We have the engineers and designers as
clearly displayed by the fact that most formula one racing teams are based in
the UK. Factories take a lot of space
therefore the capitol cost of setting up a factory would make the UK not cost
effective but the UK could be the development area for products made where
manufacturing is less expensive.
Investment in industry should be
encouraged as it could bring employment and financial reward.
During my career I have worked in
several types of engineering business improving quality and throughput and this
took me around the world. One thing I
noted was in developing countries such as India all types of qualification and
experience are appreciated and rewarded.
In Germany where industry is still profitable to work as an engineer the
correct qualifications are required before you can even call yourself an
engineer. In the UK we say we will
call an engineer to fix our washing machine, it is this lack of understanding
of the training and experience required to earn the title engineer that is one
reason why our universities have so few engineers in training.
To re-develop our industry we need
leader’s free thinkers and investors all to understand what the manufacturing
industry entails. Our industries could
be very high tech with the right backing and promotion.
Gone are the dark satanic mills of
old our industry but we should use the resources we have in abundance and that
is our younger generation of students and industrialists.
Current industrial development within
the UK.
In recent years the UK has been used
as a resource by several foreign investors taking over ailing companies and
redeveloping them to use British respected company names like Rolls Royce,
Bently, Jaguar and Land Rover to sell products made in the UK but by companies
with foreign owners. Nissan and Honda
have set up companies from green fields and used the UK work force skills to
make high quality cars but again the ownership and therefore the profit has
been foreign.
From Southampton near where I live UK
built cars are shipped all over the world some even to within the EU this
trading on the UK reputation for quality and recently good industrial relations
is a resource that UK investors should be taking advantage of.
Hope for the future
One company that had all but closed,
Triumph Motor Cycles were underfunded in the late 50,s and early 60,s their
products were left behind as obsolete and old fashioned with poor
reliability. Triumph was purchased by a
UK investor and the company has been reinvigorated with traditional models
brought up to date and new models all of high quality and the company is one of
the most rapidly growing motor cycle companies in the world.
With this brief and very personal
statement the question I would like answered by the UK now is where do we go
from here.
Allan
Glass
