Lost Opportunities
Discussion
Chatting to a guy a work - about to retire from a 40 odd carear in engineering, about the Miners strikes in the 80's. I've always stuck with the usual opinion that there was no option but to close the pits - uneconomic, unions needed a to learn a lesson etc etc... same old stuff. However, having lived and worked at the sharp end throughout the gradual demise of our heavy industry since the late 50's he pointed out that the near total destruction of the mines meant 'we' lost a huge amount of engineering skills, machinery and knowlage. He'd seen huge manufacturing machines sold to the far east for a song, generations of experience stopped dead. This wasn't just particular to the mines, but their quick demise meant the impact was severe. The crux of his point was that if we needed to start up our deep mineing industry in the future - we can't, it's lost. No bad thing? I'm not so sure, for example - all the shiney new Gas Turbine Power generators we've built when Mrs T diverted her attention to offshore gas will at some point in the near future need Russian gas. Need energy - built a new Drax - we would have no choice but to invite foreign investment and skills to restart a mining industry.
Anyway - the point of the post - the potential sale of British Energy to EDF - a direct result of past polical short sightnessm like the mines. We can't built new nuclear plants - our economy is built on bulding databases for the Goverment and Banks, and people employed to input the data, plus a few shops, generally reliant on imported goods. All the experience that had been built up has gone the extent that the confidence to build new 'Sizewells' has gone. 20 years is a long time. For all France's problems - at least there was the will to fight for their indusry when they didn't make economic sense. Which is why they still make cars and nuclear power plants, and trains, and have control of Airbus, and made that massive cruiseliner. All huge economy boosters. After the 70's, Britain just got a credit card and pissed our major industries up the wall. We may regret it.
I suppose it could be worse, at least were politcally tied to europe - so when Jonny Foreiger arrives to control all our major functions, it'll probably be close to home. I wouldn't trust the Russians and the Chinese to be in charge.
Anyway - the point of the post - the potential sale of British Energy to EDF - a direct result of past polical short sightnessm like the mines. We can't built new nuclear plants - our economy is built on bulding databases for the Goverment and Banks, and people employed to input the data, plus a few shops, generally reliant on imported goods. All the experience that had been built up has gone the extent that the confidence to build new 'Sizewells' has gone. 20 years is a long time. For all France's problems - at least there was the will to fight for their indusry when they didn't make economic sense. Which is why they still make cars and nuclear power plants, and trains, and have control of Airbus, and made that massive cruiseliner. All huge economy boosters. After the 70's, Britain just got a credit card and pissed our major industries up the wall. We may regret it.
I suppose it could be worse, at least were politcally tied to europe - so when Jonny Foreiger arrives to control all our major functions, it'll probably be close to home. I wouldn't trust the Russians and the Chinese to be in charge.
jonny_c said:
he pointed out that the near total destruction of the mines meant 'we' lost a huge amount of engineering skills, machinery and knowlage
aside from the knowledge how to spell the country has moved on and developed other skillsmining has changed, technology has advanced and the skill set has broadened so much so that most of what he was talking about would have become redundant in any case
ks sake sleep envy said:
jonny_c said:
he pointed out that the near total destruction of the mines meant 'we' lost a huge amount of engineering skills, machinery and knowlage
aside from the knowledge how to spell the country has moved on and developed other skillsmining has changed, technology has advanced and the skill set has broadened so much so that most of what he was talking about would have become redundant in any case
the tories usually try to reduce national debt and reduce spending so that they can lower taxes, thats why we had the gold stocks that some numptie flogged at a knock down price
taxpayers were subsidising the mining industry and it was cheaper to import coal at the time,scargill was a marxist and conflict with maggie was as inevitable as the sun rising in the morning, she had not forgotten how the miners broke the heath govt.
she let the miners stock the power station coalyards with enough coal to outlast the strike before scargill called the strike, miners and thier families had a very hard time that winter mostly due to scargill but they enjoyed some very nice redundancy packages afterwards
it will be the same when the conservatives eventually regain power the 1 million plus civil servants that labour has employed will all be sweating, simple economics its cheaper to put them on the dole than pay them a salary and pension, the main reason for council tax being so extortionate is browns raiding of pension funds, this man is not the most successful chancellor as the bbc would like to say but the most successful conman of recent times, if he were in private industry he would be looking at fraud charges and a lengthy term inside
taxpayers were subsidising the mining industry and it was cheaper to import coal at the time,scargill was a marxist and conflict with maggie was as inevitable as the sun rising in the morning, she had not forgotten how the miners broke the heath govt.
she let the miners stock the power station coalyards with enough coal to outlast the strike before scargill called the strike, miners and thier families had a very hard time that winter mostly due to scargill but they enjoyed some very nice redundancy packages afterwards
it will be the same when the conservatives eventually regain power the 1 million plus civil servants that labour has employed will all be sweating, simple economics its cheaper to put them on the dole than pay them a salary and pension, the main reason for council tax being so extortionate is browns raiding of pension funds, this man is not the most successful chancellor as the bbc would like to say but the most successful conman of recent times, if he were in private industry he would be looking at fraud charges and a lengthy term inside
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