Should we be getting behind Brexit by boycotting German cars
Discussion
We can buy cars from wherever we like, the EU won't care if we stop buying one make, what we need to do is ditch the EU club, as that's all it is, we never surrendered our sovereignty yet we're made to accept being ruled like we did. We must work with the other EU countries going forward, but globally too, and stop behaving like the world is going to stop turning if the EU isn't holding our hand. Look forwards, we have a great country, it was called Great Britain, we should continue to buy all the goods we like from these countries to show we want to work with them, however we also need to bring back manufacturing into this country too, and definitely not price ourselves into oblivion as before by demanding crazy wages via unions and strikes. We also need a government that doesn't tax us workers like the Sherriff of Nottingham in a famous old story, and have one that recovers corporate tax effectively.
If we learned anything over the last forty years it should be that we did a lot to ourselves, and it's only in our power to do better with this great opportunity.
If we learned anything over the last forty years it should be that we did a lot to ourselves, and it's only in our power to do better with this great opportunity.
CarsOrBikes said:
We can buy cars from wherever we like, the EU won't care if we stop buying one make, what we need to do is ditch the EU club, as that's all it is, we never surrendered our sovereignty yet we're made to accept being ruled like we did. We must work with the other EU countries going forward, but globally too, and stop behaving like the world is going to stop turning if the EU isn't holding our hand. Look forwards, we have a great country, it was called Great Britain, we should continue to buy all the goods we like from these countries to show we want to work with them, however we also need to bring back manufacturing into this country too, and definitely not price ourselves into oblivion as before by demanding crazy wages via unions and strikes. We also need a government that doesn't tax us workers like the Sherriff of Nottingham in a famous old story, and have one that recovers corporate tax effectively.
If we learned anything over the last forty years it should be that we did a lot to ourselves, and it's only in our power to do better with this great opportunity.
Well, there's a fine example of brexit jingoism-over-reality. Thank you for that.If we learned anything over the last forty years it should be that we did a lot to ourselves, and it's only in our power to do better with this great opportunity.
TooMany2cvs said:
LuS1fer said:
The GMan said:
OK, so where does Mini sit as they are currently produced in Oxford? Or the supply chain in the UK that supports BMW?
No issue with that but the question is whether that will remain the case or whether they will leave the UK.JLR's Slovak factory is opening next year, too.
The perception that the EEC / EU has been good for UK vehicle production is simply not true.
Yipper said:
Since Britain joined the EEC / EU in 1973, Britain's worldwide market share of vehicle production has declined by a huge -70%.
The perception that the EEC / EU has been good for UK vehicle production is simply not true.
Because, of course, there were absolutely no internal issues within the UK motor industry contributing...The perception that the EEC / EU has been good for UK vehicle production is simply not true.
Nickbrapp said:
Hungrymc said:
But most of those are within the EU so will be off the menu if we are going to try to use cars as a Brexit weapon.
Nothing wrong with JLR though if you want a nice car.
All the EDL should be driving morgans really Nothing wrong with JLR though if you want a nice car.
Was merely pointing out that many of the alternatives listed were still EU (and I’m assuming the OP was aimed at the remaining 27, not just Germany). And that JLR make very nice cars (under Indian ownership and with increasing plans to manufacture outside of the UK).
TooMany2cvs said:
Yipper said:
Since Britain joined the EEC / EU in 1973, Britain's worldwide market share of vehicle production has declined by a huge -70%.
The perception that the EEC / EU has been good for UK vehicle production is simply not true.
Because, of course, there were absolutely no internal issues within the UK motor industry contributing...The perception that the EEC / EU has been good for UK vehicle production is simply not true.
Maybe Globalisation is the issue that Brexit supporters actually dislike?
Yipper said:
Since Britain joined the EEC / EU in 1973, Britain's worldwide market share of vehicle production has declined by a huge -70%.
The perception that the EEC / EU has been good for UK vehicle production is simply not true.
Given the global forces it's not surprising. I helped set some things up at Nissan in the U.K. Volume sales/market share aren't where it's at IMO. We haven't got the cheap labour or concessions to threaten many countries to be honest. The perception that the EEC / EU has been good for UK vehicle production is simply not true.
Yipper said:
Since Britain joined the EEC / EU in 1973, Britain's worldwide market share of vehicle production has declined by a huge -70%.
The perception that the EEC / EU has been good for UK vehicle production is simply not true.
Since the invention of the combustion engine the use of horse and carriage has declined....If my aunty had balls she would be my uncle...The perception that the EEC / EU has been good for UK vehicle production is simply not true.
Those facts are as irrelevant as yours.
The whole car manufacturering sector has changed dramatically due to global markets changing. We already had major car manufacturing problems before joining the EU.
Car manufacturers will sell their products wherever, they can, and wherever they can get a reasonable return on them, Some will carry on buying German cars, because through either reputation (false or otherwise) or experience, they find them better, or prefer them to other makes, Personally I wouldn't care where a car came from, or who manufactures it, as long as it provides what I am looking for, for the price, I can or am prepared to pay for it. It would be nice however if the number of UK manufacturers could increase, to even a fraction of the manufacturers who used to design and make cars in the UK.
The issue is in this country, we are just a bit crap. Most things we make just don't compare to other parts of the world, especially mass market cars. British layland wrote its own death by making crap products, and we constantly go on strike when we think we are hard done by
Look at the current issues in the steel industry, boohoo we need a steel industry in this country, but then the workers of the plant in port talbot are launching legal battles about the dust on their window sills and the train drivers are complaining about only earning 40k a year
It's not surprising we don't make anything any more, we are a nation of admin women doing a piss poor job,
Look at the current issues in the steel industry, boohoo we need a steel industry in this country, but then the workers of the plant in port talbot are launching legal battles about the dust on their window sills and the train drivers are complaining about only earning 40k a year
It's not surprising we don't make anything any more, we are a nation of admin women doing a piss poor job,
Nick, though I share your general view that we’re better off in the EU, I think that post was as distorted and irrational as the “we were called Great Britain for a reason” one.
We have our problems, and we have our strengths, much like many other nations. If you want to talk about strikes, take a look at Lufthansa pilots and then cabin crew, French air traffic control etc. It’s not a British thing.
Many people are in denial about the impacts of a global economy, that includes the Port Talbot workers you mention just as it did for the workers at Ford Genk 4 years ago etc etc.
We do have some great strengths in the UK (I’ve worked around the EU for the last 10 years and haven’t spent significant time working in the UK but still live there). The issue is I think we can use those strength far more effectively under the terms of EU membership than we can as an independant country..... I’d string up Juncker for his stubborn single minded United States of Europe drive and I’d string up Cameron for playing a stupid political game with such a significant and complex issue.
We have our problems, and we have our strengths, much like many other nations. If you want to talk about strikes, take a look at Lufthansa pilots and then cabin crew, French air traffic control etc. It’s not a British thing.
Many people are in denial about the impacts of a global economy, that includes the Port Talbot workers you mention just as it did for the workers at Ford Genk 4 years ago etc etc.
We do have some great strengths in the UK (I’ve worked around the EU for the last 10 years and haven’t spent significant time working in the UK but still live there). The issue is I think we can use those strength far more effectively under the terms of EU membership than we can as an independant country..... I’d string up Juncker for his stubborn single minded United States of Europe drive and I’d string up Cameron for playing a stupid political game with such a significant and complex issue.
TwigtheWonderkid said:
You're forgetting the extra £350m a week that is now going into the health service. 
I enjoyed Boris’s recent clarification that he meant we’ll have ‘direct control over it’. As opposed to giving it to the EU, for them to allocate half of it back to UK projects and the rest to EU general budget.It sounded like he has started to understand how it all works a little better but off course still totally missed the point that it and more will disappear into thin air if the economy sees the stress that most of us expect.
The only good I see in it is that it’s expossed Juncker and his cronies in the same way it expossed Cameron, Boris, May, Corbyn etc. It’s a hell of a price to pay but we can now prove that all they are interested in is their careers and they have little interest in the wider good... but we knew that already.
Hungrymc said:
we’re also no longer a manufacturing economy
Down from 25% of the economy in the 70s to 12% now, and still the sixth largest manufacturing nation, by value.The UK car industry builds as many cars now as it's ever done.
Hungrymc said:
Maybe Globalisation is the issue that Brexit supporters actually dislike?
I dunno about that - what was the British Empire, if not "globalisation"? Robert Falcon Scott, the Mayflower, Francis Drake?No, the thing that Brexiteers don't like is Johnny Foreigner not letting us have our cake and eat it. If they can't have it all their way, they'll take their ball back and sulk, unable to understand why they can't simply rely on being first to market and then resting on laurels - instead, Johnny Foreigner gets off his arse and simply does it better. Despicable b
d that he is.TooMany2cvs said:
The Crack Fox said:
Nickbrapp said:
The issue is in this country, we are just a bit crap.
bks.This country is a festering backwater of patriotic gibberish propped up by false pride in events which have been magnified by generations of folk with a dubious grasp on history.
For every little englander (lower case deliberately) who thinks of Churchill fighting them on the beaches and the Dambusters and all the other jingoistic crap that gets co-opted into the narrow world view that got us here I give you these words by Wing Commander Guy Gibson.
Enemy Coast Ahead, 1943.
"...we ourselves must learn. We must learn to know and respect our great Western Allies who have made the chance of victory possible. We must understand them, their ways and their customs. We British are apt to consider ourselves the yard stick on which everything else should be based.
We must not delude ourselves. We have plenty to learn.
We must learn politics. We must vote for the right things and not necessarily the traditional things. We want to see our country remain as great as it is today - forever. It all depends on the people, their common sense and their memory."
Rather prophetic I believe.
The European nations, together with NATO have since 1946 managed to create the longest period of peace and proseprity that Europe has ever known.
The up shot of this is the closer and closer harmony that created the EU.
I am no fan of a Federal Europe, but as an alternative to the past of isolationism and bi and tri partite agreements it has a lot to be said for it.
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