The reason we are slower to come out of recession is our over dependence on the financial sector and lack of investment in manufacturing.
France and Germany may have been less hard hit than the UK by the global economic slowdown because their financial sectors, which were at the heart of the crisis, account for a smaller proportion of their economies." France and Germany exit recession, BBC News, Thursday, 13 August 2009, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8198766.stm
^ Prospect magazine supplement, http://www.scribd.com/doc/10966581/UK-Manufacturing-Prospect-Magazine-2009. "The credit crunch has exposed our over dependence on the financial sector", The Return of Manufacturing, Michael Prest, UK Manufacturing Prospect magazine 2009, p. 4
^ How Margaret Thatcher made Britain great again, Andrew Roberts, The First Post, http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/46612,news-comment,news-politics,how-margaret-thatcher-made-britain-great-again-andrew-roberts, "She changed British reliance on manufacturing industry just in time"
We should be talking less about cuts and more about wealth creation through adding value and exporting our products and services.
We should not export our knowledge but our products!
Saturday, 1 May 2010
Tuesday, 27 April 2010
Tuesday, 20 April 2010
What Party Supports Manufacturing?
The elections are fast approaching and all the parties are telling us what they will do if we vote for them. I would like to know what party will support manufacturing but sadly I don't see any of them saying that manufacturing is important. If they mention manufacturing they often show there profound ignorance on the subject.
Back in the sixties when I started my engineering career most engineering and manufacturing business where run my people with engineering backgrounds.
We gradual saw a change, chief executives no longer were coming from engineering backgrounds. We now had our leaders coming from banks and the financial world. We watched as long term investments dried up and immediate short term profits were the order of the day. One by one, drip by drip companies failed, the gradual loss of many decades of highly skilled people were resigned to the scrap heap. Our companies were either sold or allowed to wither through lack of investment.
We once had some of the best engineering talent in the world but soon we will not even be able to produce a bar of chocolate.
Speak to any university about technology, engineering and creating added value. It will make you weep at the lack of funding available to educate our young people.
Once again we see the banks and financial services developing their short term polices based on greed and self interest. They neither make anything or add any value other than move money around in a big circle. Not unlike Pyramid Selling and we all know that making money in this way always eventually leads to collapse. Business that add value through making products, processing raw materials, growing food add real value to our economy. Instead of cutting our vital services like hospitals, education, armed forces and social care we could be spending more on their improvements and not to mention the increase in providing real satisfying jobs.
Next time a politician seeks your vote ask him or her what they are doing to readdress our loss in manufacturing, engineering and technology.
Change will only come if you ask for it!
Back in the sixties when I started my engineering career most engineering and manufacturing business where run my people with engineering backgrounds.
We gradual saw a change, chief executives no longer were coming from engineering backgrounds. We now had our leaders coming from banks and the financial world. We watched as long term investments dried up and immediate short term profits were the order of the day. One by one, drip by drip companies failed, the gradual loss of many decades of highly skilled people were resigned to the scrap heap. Our companies were either sold or allowed to wither through lack of investment.
We once had some of the best engineering talent in the world but soon we will not even be able to produce a bar of chocolate.
Speak to any university about technology, engineering and creating added value. It will make you weep at the lack of funding available to educate our young people.
Once again we see the banks and financial services developing their short term polices based on greed and self interest. They neither make anything or add any value other than move money around in a big circle. Not unlike Pyramid Selling and we all know that making money in this way always eventually leads to collapse. Business that add value through making products, processing raw materials, growing food add real value to our economy. Instead of cutting our vital services like hospitals, education, armed forces and social care we could be spending more on their improvements and not to mention the increase in providing real satisfying jobs.
Next time a politician seeks your vote ask him or her what they are doing to readdress our loss in manufacturing, engineering and technology.
Change will only come if you ask for it!
Friday, 19 March 2010
Wednesday, 17 March 2010
Wednesday, 10 March 2010
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