Can Labour actually win the next election and make a difference?

[Titanic]

Made or assembled? big difference. Think you will find most are assembled using mainly foreign parts. And the crap strength of the pound does not make these cars cheaper for export when they are made using parts bought outside the UK. This was all on the BBC some time ago. The UK motor industry is still a basket case.

When I go to a decent restaurant I don't expect the chef to lay the eggs. That doesn't take away the skill with which he assembles my food, the money I pay for it, the taxes he pays, or the people who he employs both directly and indirectly. It still seems to be a pretty worthwhile venture to me.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

When I go to a decent restaurant I don't expect the chef to lay the eggs. That doesn't take away the skill with which he assembles my food, the money I pay for it, the taxes he pays, or the people who he employs both directly and indirectly. It still seems to be a pretty worthwhile venture to me.

I'm sorry but there is a huge difference. If a car is mainly manufactured in the UK then at the very least it uses more staff which will typically also be more highly skilled and higher paid than assemblers. I cannot be bothered to explain all the other benefits but they are pretty damn obvious.

Crap analogy by the way. If I go to a 'decent restaurant' I care very much where the food comes from.

 

[vulture]

If they ditch red ed then yes.

 

[34064 Fighter Command]

When I go to a decent restaurant I don't expect the chef to lay the eggs. That doesn't take away the skill with which he assembles my food, the money I pay for it, the taxes he pays, or the people who he employs both directly and indirectly. It still seems to be a pretty worthwhile venture to me.

Is he buying his meat from British farms, or is it coming from Romania. Was he trained at the local College of Further education or in a Paris Hotel. Are his knives made in Sheffield or Taiwan.

My local Spanish restaurant is owned and run by a Hungarian trained in Budapest. He still makes a great play about how he sources his food from Berkshire and Hampshire suppliers, but he also gets supplies from Spain as well.

http://www.elsabio.co.uk/el-sabio-newbury/menu-and-wine-list/

He takes pride in where his supplies come from. He knows it's important to his customers to know that the food they eat supports local employers. But he's not British, he's Hungarian. What does he have to teach us? He says, "I'm contributing to Britain, and you can be proud that you are as well when you eat here".

Some (possibly UKIP) people on this thread would regard him as an unskilled usurper of British chefs given half a chance. Actually talk to him and he's come here to run a business, settle down and make a life for himself.

Now if we Brits did the same thing in reverse, then we can stop chiding the EU for it's faults, and take up the cudgle of opportunity.

PS: The food is bloody delicious.

 

[beorhthelm]

Made or assembled? big difference. Think you will find most are assembled using mainly foreign parts. And the crap strength of the pound does not make these cars cheaper for export when they are made using parts bought outside the UK. This was all on the BBC some time ago. The UK motor industry is still a basket case.

you need to update your information, far from being a basket case, the UK motor industry is the second largest in Europe (after Germany). apparently more cars are made at Nissan's Sunderland factory than the whole of Italy. cars are always "assembled", its called an assembly line for a reason. true the supply chain isnt what it was in this country, but this UK bashing ignores all the components made here and exported, for instance to VW and others (brakes and lights i know of).

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

you need to update your information, far from being a basket case, the UK motor industry is the second largest in Europe (after Germany). apparently more cars are made at Nissan's Sunderland factory than the whole of Italy. cars are always "assembled", its called an assembly line for a reason. true the supply chain isnt what it was in this country, but this UK bashing ignores all the components made here and exported, for instance to VW and others (brakes and lights i know of).

Update my info? I'm just going by this BBC doc I listened to a few months ago. They made comparisons between the UK car plants and those in other parts on Europe and it was damning and a distinction between manufacture and assembly was clearly made and well put. I appreciate cars are always assembled, otherwise they would be sold as kits; but in Germany they also make more of the parts. And ho big does a car industry have to be to be 2nd to Germany? Can you provide some context? Otherwise it's a meaningless statistic.

Cameron and the industry will tell you one thing. The truth is could be different.

 

[cunning fergus]

Update my info? I'm just going by this BBC doc I listened to a few months ago. They made comparisons between the UK car plants and those in other parts on Europe and it was damning and a distinction between manufacture and assembly was clearly made and well put. I appreciate cars are always assembled, otherwise they would be sold as kits; but in Germany they also make more of the parts. And ho big does a car industry have to be to be 2nd to Germany? Can you provide some context? Otherwise it's a meaningless statistic.

Cameron and the industry will tell you one thing. The truth is could be different.

Regardless how many it is now...........if it wasn't for the EU the UK would be making more............

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=WQ&reference=E-2012-011072&language=EN

Sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction.

 

[beorhthelm]

...And ho big does a car industry have to be to be 2nd to Germany? Can you provide some context? Otherwise it's a meaningless statistic.

well it means being bigger than France, Italy and anywhere else in Europe. are they basket cases too? i know Germany is the 800lb gorilla in european manufacturing, but theres still alot that goes on beyond. alot of that is here in good old blighty. if there's one thing worse than the deterioration of our industry, its overstating how far that has gone.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

No, not if the prevailing view on NSC is anything to go by (see other thread).

How the F-HAAK can so many BHA supporters back a party that was implacably opposed to the AMEX (until it was all done and dusted, after which they went all gooey)?

The Daily Mail spent all the 30s going on about what a nice chap Mr Hitler was. Read your history, numpties.

Give me strength . . .

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

well it means being bigger than France, Italy and anywhere else in Europe. are they basket cases too?

I'm not sure if they're basket cases but they don't strike me as significant when it comes to car manufacture. I'm happy to accept the UK is the best of the also rans.....but me being me I want and expect more than being better than some lower league manufacturers. I'd really like it if the others felt the same. Why not aim higher?

 

[HenryC]

I don't really care as long as Ed Balls is not involved. He comes across to me as totally incompetent and untrustworthy...

 

[Titanic]

I don't really care as long as Ed Balls is not involved. He comes across to me as totally incompetent and untrustworthy...

If Miliband carries on like he is, Ed Bollx could be leading Labour into the General Election