4000 jobs exported to china...

[nick mercedes]

End of LDV, lift and shift Rover style, again, do we never learn?

FT.com / UK - Ex-Rover aide buys van maker LDV

 

[Baron_Samedi]

Short Answer No.

And while the economy can "recover" with out increasing tangible exports no one will be motivated to centrally (government policy makers) to encourage investment in manufacturing industry other than that needed to maintain a defence capability.

 

[verytalldave]

It is a great pity to see any jobs exported from the UK.

But lets face it, who - apart from Royal Mail - actually bought an LDV van in this country in the last 5 years. Its an ancient design and needs a long deserved redesign from the ground up.
Could never ever see that being done in the UK.
Its Rover all over again.

Which kind of prompts the question,,,,,,,,,,
Is there a car being made out there by anyone that is actually 100% sourced and built in the UK?
I doubt whether even Bristol can claim 100% now.
And if, as I suspect the answer is a definite NO, then I wonder what car was the very last to meet this 100% criteria?
Just curious.

 

[nick mercedes]

It is a great pity to see any jobs exported from the UK.

But lets face it, who - apart from Royal Mail - actually bought an LDV van in this country in the last 5 years. Its an ancient design and needs a long deserved redesign from the ground up.

Maxus launched 4 years ago, so not all that ancient.

Loads of fleets used LDV, good durable vans.

 

[Dave Lewis]

Is there a car being made out there by anyone that is actually 100% sourced and built in the UK?
I doubt whether even Bristol can claim 100% now.

Bristol haven't been able to claim that since 1961 when they started using Chrysler V8 engines (from Canada) and Torqueflight transmissions.

 

[nick mercedes]

Bristol haven't been able to claim that since 1961 when they started using Chrysler V8 engines (from Canada) and Torqueflight transmissions.

Both Nissan and Honda cast engines at their UK assembly plants, so they possibly are the only two that actually use UK made engines.

Other than Bristol, are the only "British" car makers now Atom and Morgan?

Rolls Royce and Bentley just assemble cars from German CKD kits, and the Chinese have given up doing the same at Longbridge...

 

[Mr E]

End of LDV, lift and shift Rover style, again, do we never learn?

FT.com / UK - Ex-Rover aide buys van maker LDV

Apologies if I have this wrong, but is this what the article says?

LDV was already dead and buried with 850 jobs gone. HMG would not assist a management buy-out becasue they could not offer a business plan that could be thought of as viable. It did not address any of the fundamentals that caused the business to die in the first place.

So what has Qu Li done? Made anyone redundent? No. Stopped production? No. What she has done is bought the assets of LDV and plans to create 200 jobs.

Now her track record is not impresive in this regard (see Nanjing and MG), and I'd be sceptical about anything at this stage. In the end the line, etc, might end up being exported back out to China. But this story is about the creation of 200 manufacturing jobs. It would be nice if this was UK investment but let's face facts and accept that the money (and associated power) is shifting elsewhere in the world. And that's a whole different story, for another thread and another time .

 

[LimitedSlip]

End of LDV, lift and shift Rover style, again, do we never learn?

There's nothing to learn. Decades of systematically, relentlessly running everything down and selling it off does not happen by accident or ignorance of some hidden knowledge/ability that only the eventual buyers of these assets possess.

We've got to where we are as a result of policies that were planned back before the Common Market trojan horse, and totally unconnected to whoever's been in "government". It's all been dismantled.

Of course, we can always blame the unions...

 

[verytalldave]

There's nothing to learn. Decades of systematically, relentlessly running everything down and selling it off does not happen by accident or ignorance of some hidden knowledge/ability that only the eventual buyers of these assets possess.

We've got to where we are as a result of policies that were planned back before the Common Market trojan horse, and totally unconnected to whoever's been in "government". It's all been dismantled.

Of course, we can always blame the unions...

I disagree that the government cannot bear a sizeable percentage of the blame.
It is their job to provide an economic environment whereby the country should prosper and succeed relative to the rest of the world. If the country fails to do this, then they have failed in this, their most fundamental of objectives.
I am not talking party politics here. Whether left or right wing, that should be their task. How they wish to go about this is down to their core beliefs.
I started working in 1965 and back then there was a good manufacturing base to the country and everyone seemed to prosper and be fairly optimistic. Apprenticeships were readily available and even those coming out of school with little or no qualifications could find work with just a little effort.
Since about 1980 the whole country seemed to suddenly go into reverse gear. Attitudes changed and people en masse lost that optimistic streak and pessimism became the order of the day.
This is still how it is. I don't know what the answer is, or whether indeed if there is one. Perhaps everything comes round in cycles and its just a matter of waiting until the next period of good times is upon us.
I hope its not too long.

 

[nick mercedes]

LDV was already dead and buried with 850 jobs gone. HMG would not assist a management buy-out becasue they could not offer a business plan that could be thought of as viable. It did not address any of the fundamentals that caused the business to die in the first place.

So what has Qu Li done? Made anyone redundent? No. Stopped production? No. What she has done is bought the assets of LDV and plans to create 200 jobs.

200 jobs instead of 4000....

In no other country in Europe would a company like LDV been allowed to be killed and asset stripped.

All the government had to do was spend a few million to get the factory up and runnning again, and 4000 people would not now be sat at home being sponsored by the few of us who still have jobs.

 

[andy_k]

200 jobs instead of 4000....

In no other country in Europe would a company like LDV been allowed to be killed and asset stripped.

All the government had to do was spend a few million to get the factory up and runnning again, and 4000 people would not now be sat at home being sponsored by the few of us who still have jobs.

The Government spent a fortune on British Leyland when they nationalised it in the seventies, then a different government privatised it again in the late eighties - seems you can't please all the people

 

[nick mercedes]

The Government spent a fortune on British Leyland when they nationalised it in the seventies, then a different government privatised it again in the late eighties - seems you can't please all the people

We can't just let all manufacturing die, as it is most of it has gone.

What do we do when we have to import everything?

We'll end up as an impoverished bannana republic without any bannanas....

 

[unitfreebie]

The MBA's are the root of all GREED and EVIL!!!

Uh, just wanted to let all you poor Blokes know that it isn't much better here on the other side of the Pond!!!!

Manufacturing jobs are flying out the door as fast as the Management with MBA's can outsource them to China and India (Russia too!).

China's meteoric growth is the result of all the job outsourcing and it is now manufacturing the majority of our shoes, clothing, cameras, TVs, Radios, electronics, tools, etc etc etc.... so why not our cars, except for military equipment like tanks and missiles, etc.

I submit to you all that the core of the problem is the rise of the MBA (Master of Business Administration) management types who's only aim is to show a big profit for the current business quarter at the expense of the company's R&D, future sales or moral of the employee, who are the first to be fired while the MBA builds his empire within the Company!

The rise of the MBA's began in earnest during the recession of the 1980's when the unemployed business types were lured to enroll for a MBA degree with big promises of high salaries for just two years of schooling. It has been downhill ever since. The worst damage was done to the Financial sector where they went rampant with greed and legally stole the pensions of the honest working man.

Now the MBA schools are saying their training program are incorporating honesty and ethical instructions.... well, too late and too little.... I say it is high time to outlaw all those Business Schools of Greed and strip the MBA's of their degrees and ill gotten gains and make them get an honest job, if they can !

:bannana: