Why did Britain

[alchresearch 220]

British Leyland was going down the pan long before Thatcher got into office.

[owdlad 10]

British industry has been going downhill since the end of the last war when we kept the old ways of working mainly because the owners of industry were making loads of profit and kept pocketing it, instead of ploughing some of it back into their companies.

 

One prime example being a well known Sheffield company who had machinery dating back to pre WW1, that was still in production in the late 1980s, and another who allowd the Japanese to "visit" with cameras around their necks then wondered why the clutches were then going to be made in Japan.

 

The other side of the coin is that the unions also got too strong and were trying to bring down every good company that they could, there has to be a balance drawn somewhere.

[t020 11]

Originally posted by dylan_61

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.

 

Hear, hear.

[dylan_61 10]

Originally posted by t020

Hear, hear.

 

Her lack of social conscience alienated a lot of people. E.g. closing the staple industry in single major employer communities without putting in education, training provisions.

 

But we would be in the same economic position as Italy or spain if we hadn't taken such tough, unpopular long term decisions.

 

She's disliked by thoes on the recieving end of the changes, but historically she'll be held in the highest regard.

[royjames 10]

Margaret Thatcher was the best thing to happen to this country for years,she laid down the foundations for a sucessful economy which we have today.

As for manufacturing moving abroad it's called globalisation,and whether you like it or not it's a fact of life.

[Ned Ludd 10]

Anyone who has studied social and economic history will know that British industry has been in decline since WWI.

There isn't one overall reason but the main one was long term under investment because too much money was being paid out in dividends and too little in R&D and capital investment.

A good example of this was the Dunlop factory in Merseyside which closed in the 1980's. Made profits for decades but most of the machinery was pre-WW1 and when there was a brakedown existing equipment had to be cannibalised.... the gear was so old no one made spare parts. I needn't describe the state of the art facilities our American and German friends had developed in the same area of business. The business was milked to death because of greed and that's fairly typical of Britain over 100 years or more.

Of course there are other factors, bad design, poor quality products, restrictive Union practices and politicians who seemed only too happy to promote and accelerate the decline of industry. Thatcher who relished destroying communities ("there is no such thing as society"...and she made sure that came true) also thought that manufacturing was of no value to the country's economy. Mad Cow. Oh that reminds me, her obsession for deregulation lead to BSE.