Why did Britain

sell out profitable well respected companied to foreign rivals? I am talking about car, engineering, manufacturing industries and so on. what was the logic behind this letting these people get their hands on our jewels and prestigious industries.

Ever heard of Margaret Thatcher? That bitch closed everything down!!! She put britain fifty year's behind the rest of the western world, so much for a woman prime minister, thank's but no thank's.

Hear! Hear!

Thank you Tricia, cheer's.

Yeah Thatcher ...this country's manufacturing backbone was broken by her. Our economy now depends on the rise and fall of house prices. It does seem that many companies in the UK are now owned or part owned by US or European corporations , I've worked for a couple.

I'm definitely no supporter of Thatcher, and I'm too young to have first hand experience of politics pre-Thatcher, but as I understand it she basically killed the dying beast. British manufacturing industries weren't exactly in great shape in the 70's and had been in decline for some time prior to that, so she's not solely responsible for destroying them. Conversely, she could have worked to improve the manufacturing sectors rather than get rid of them, but then so could have her predecessors. There are a great many things to blame for the decline of industry in this country, and many of them (including inefficient management and a poor regard for education) are still around today.

I suspect like the people posting above I resent the effect Thatcher and her ideals had on Britain. We've got a much more London-centric country with a huge gulf between there and the North in most respects. All our public services are run-down and many inappropriately privatised and we have much more of a me-first culture than we used to have. Too much power is still in too few hands - at present this is at it's most acute corporately where, for example, we've got far too much of our media controlled by Rupert Murdoch. At present I can't see any change in any of the above under New Labour either.

I should stress that this is all second-hand knowledge - I'm keen to learn more about the 70's and 80's as apart from anything it's frustrating knowing I was there even if I wasn't paying much attention at the time!

You make some valid points Chris, British industry was in decline and a militancy had arisen in the form of egotistical union leaders. The biggest threat to any govt was always the working class, inparticularly the unions. Thatcher decided to break them and she did !

Investment was and still is the key to successful business, too many British companies were reluctant to invest in plant and machinery and overseas manufacturing put us in the shade. Recent investment in what was left of the British car industry by our German counterparts has shown what can be done, but unfortunately most UK manufacturing has already gone, and whats left is struggling to compete with the far east.

The unions and Thatcher - one extreme replaced with another. Perhaps something I should have added to my list of issues crippling Britain and it's assets is extremist politics and petty political bickering. Mind you, I'm not sure if there's anywhere in the world that isn't affected by this! Democracy requires political parties to take different views much of the time, but it is *so* frustrating when politicians take this attitude beyond the bounds of common sense! The only alternative explanation to this lack of common sense is ulterior motive / vested interest. How else could you explain the Bush administration's attitudes towards the environment?

Originally posted by Chris

The unions and Thatcher - one extreme replaced with another. Perhaps something I should have added to my list of issues crippling Britain and it's assets is extremist politics and petty political bickering. Mind you, I'm not sure if there's anywhere in the world that isn't affected by this! Democracy requires political parties to take different views much of the time, but it is *so* frustrating when politicians take this attitude beyond the bounds of common sense! The only alternative explanation to this lack of common sense is ulterior motive / vested interest. How else could you explain the Bush administration's attitudes towards the environment?

It is true. Politicians do have their own interests at heart. Whether it be personal gain, legacy or getting re-elected. Of course, governments of both colours have been highly complacent about selling off our industrial assets to overseas companies.

The Tories allowed Rover to be sold to arch-rivals BMW (who sold it on), just as they allowed Rowntree to be taken over by Nestle. After that, the largest British car manufacturer is either Reliant or Morgan, with their wooden frame cars.

In terms of buying their own national products, the French are much more heavily committed than any other European nation. In almost all products, not just cars. The only items in which you see any substantial numbers of foreign manufactured goods is in consumer electronics - TV's, videos, HiFi's etc. There are, of course, still a substantial number of cars manufactured in the UK, it's just that almost all the originating companies are foreign. A serious problem is that there are now no British made lorries and an ever decreasing amount of other commercial vehicles - vans, buses, contractors machinery such as heavy tipper lorries, excavators, not to mention tractors and other agricultural machinery. All these must generate a serious balance of payments problem which successive governments never seem to mention.

The Brits, of course, have only themselves to blame for this. A combination of poor design and excessive labour costs due to a union backed refusal to automate production techniques. You can see this process currently in train in Europe which will almost certainly cause the transfer eastwards of much heavy industry and consumer goods. The same head in the sand attitude could be blamed for destroying our ship building industry.

I personally know of one example of industries being sold.

A doundry in Barnsley closed fairly recently - they had a process of engineering silver steel. The Germans didn't - a direct ORDER has come from our Mr Blair telling the ex- workers that they must go over and teach them how to do it.

The Foundry was not in any difficulties and was thriving on the old family business - the firm was closed by the government.

I don't know why or the wherefors - other than people don't like Britian to have anything anymore and we let em get away with it!!

Moon Maiden

Originally posted by halevan

Ever heard of Margaret Thatcher? That bitch closed everything down!!! She put britain fifty year's behind the rest of the western world, so much for a woman prime minister, thank's but no thank's.

When she came to power we had been working three day weeks, there were power cuts and had gone cap in hand to the World Bank to ask for a loan.

Now we have the fifth largest economy in the world (was 4th until a year ago) and the labour market flexibility created by her neo liberal economic polices has virtually eradicated unemployment.

In Germany Gerhard Schrodder is restructuring their economy along the lines of the British model and continually states that he's using Thatcherism to bring down the 10,000,000 unemployment figure.

The hard economic decisions taken in the early eighties are reaping their rewards. We have a lot to be greatful for. History will portray her in a very positive light.

Its also a side efect of chronic short term views - sell a company and make a batch of cash now but ignore the fact that you now have no manufacturing base, no heavy engineering skills and no-one left to train people up. The same thing is happening with research - comanies are farming out research to universities to cut costs meaning there is little to no industrial research so any researchers coming out of the academic system are now having to move across to countries that actually invest in their future rather than grabbing what they can here and now. As far as I can see this is a trend that will continue and get worse...