Is this another nail in the coffin for UK manufacturing? 2

[chris9]

Sheffield Forgemasters was declined a government loan of £80 million to build nuclear reactors parts. This would have created a couple of hundred jobs plus many more in the supply chain. The reasons given by the UK government are lack of funds. If ever there was a case to give UK manufacturing a leg up then this was it!

Is there an anti nuclear agenda here?

http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/Labour-urges-rethink-on-Sheffield.6440193.jp

Chris

http://www.value-design-consulting.co.uk

 

[micalbrch]

Not sure how the public mood in UK is towards nuclear power plants or anything that has something to do with nuclear technology. But in other (European) countries nuclear stuff is not very popular. And politics listen to that as the next elections are not far away. The few hundred people that do not have a job due to the government's decision are negligible compared to the hundred thousand voters who are against nuclear technology.

 

[CajunCenturion]

==> The reasons given by the UK government are lack of funds.
Why can't that be the reason? Isn't this from the same government whose Prime Minister flew commercial to the USA to save money?

I know that honesty and fiscal responsibility are rare occurrences from governments, but maybe, just maybe, the UK has found a good one. Now, if we can just follow that lead.


Good Luck
--------------
As a circle of light increases so does the circumference of darkness around it. - Albert Einstein

 

[jmw]

The PM flew commercial because he didn't want to be tarred with the same Blairforce 1 criticism as the previous PM.
It has nothing to do with money.
This is the guy who made a point of cycling to parliament with the press in tow ... and with his official car following.

The Liberals have acquired control of a lot of key cabinet posts in an unnecessary coalition and their dominant influence on policy are the best advert for first past the post there is, the energy secretary is more green than green.

At the same time the liberals popularity, never high, is now at an all time low. (In the tory party the veiled murmerings are becoming distinctly audible.)
It doesn't sound like people are supporting his plan to fill the landscape and seascape with wind farms.
Nuclear was a reasonably popular/necessary option. And somewhat against its will the outgoing government made a commitment to nuclear.

The real test will come in a couple of years when we suffer frequent brownouts due to energy shortages.

JMW

http://www.ViscoAnalyser.com

 

[jmw]

Oh, and yes. It is another nail in the coffin.
Remember that all those wind farms will be supplied by overseas companies and manufactured in China.


JMW

http://www.ViscoAnalyser.com

 

[ajack1]

There seems to be a lot of politics going on with this. The out-going labour party were offering support for all and sundry, knowing that they could never deliver what they were promising.

The whole thing got a lot more shady thanks to Andrew Cook, who apart from wanting to buy into Forgemasters is also is a major contributor to Tory funds and appeared to lobby to get the loan stopped.

So if it was decided that £80M for 200 jobs did not represent good value, or if something more sinister is going on is anyones guess.

http://www.theengineer.co.uk/news/conservative-donor-tried-to-invest-in-forgemasters/1003907.article

With regard to the wind farms jmw could not be further from the truth.

http://www.edp24.co.uk/content/edp2...=xDefault&itemid=NOED29 Mar 2010 19:59:35:643

 

[jmw]

We'll have to wait and see.

JMW

http://www.ViscoAnalyser.com

 

[corus]

Strangely Nick Clegg, aka Cameron's fag, represents the Sheffield area... well for now anyway. From the Conservative point of view I doubt that increased unemployment in the north of england, where people would tend to switch back to Labour, would be of any consequence. Now if Sheffield was relocated to Hampshire it might be a different story, by 'eck. It is a blow to manufacturing when the government is hoping that the private sector will fill the gap caused by the loss of jobs in the public sector. Shallow words indeed.

Tata

 

[KENAT]

Maybe things have changed, but all my time there, I'm not sure the govt ever seemed to care more about Hampshire than elsewhere - both labour (who used to do well in Portsmouth & Southampton) & conservative.

I wonder, is the Siemans plant really going to be making them and/or sourcing materials 'locally', or is it just an assy plant for imported components?

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[jmw]

I think it is possibly a Trojan Horse.
It is there to be seen to deliver UK employment, not much but some and that we will probably see that Kenat is right, it will probably be a final assembly, component marshalling site.


JMW

http://www.ViscoAnalyser.com

 

[chris9]

Wind farms may be an alternative to nuclear power in a couple of decades but for now they only produce a small fraction of the power we need. The fact is that we need nuclear power stations and we will be getting them anyway, it's a shame that we can't build our own and when a medium sized company like Forgemasters tries to take the initiative to actually make something for a change they get sand kicked in their face.

Chris

http://www.value-design-consulting.co.uk

 

[mrgoldthorpe]

The argument I last heard was that Forgemsters should be able to get a commercial loan rather than relying on tax-payer money.

Whilst this is perhaps true, I don't think it sends the right message with regard to improving our manufacturing capability as a nation. After all, we won't get wealthy selling houses to each other and taking in other people's washing. Though I'm surprised by the number of people I know who think we can.

Incidentally, there has been a remarkable warming towards nuclear power amongst my friends and acquaintances over the last couple of years. It's a shame we have Chris Huhne as "Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change".

 

[jmw]

I've always referred to the curious coalition leaders as "Ant 'n Dec" (UK TV presenters apparently cojoined since they first appeared)
I'm never sure which is Ant and which is Dec and have no idea why they are so popular, and which I thus thought appropriate as a label for the coalition leaders since I never know who is in charge of the coalition.
Cameron appears to be prime minister but the policies are very heavily liberal and almost the entire liberal party have ministerial positions.
There are rumblings in the Tory rank and file and it was left to David Davis to label them "Brokeback Mountain.
I bow to superior wit.
Thing is, the coalition energy policy is not at all what the Tory energy policy was and is dominated by liberal thinking and especially that of Chris Huhne.
Fox in charge of the henhouse? Pretty much.
There are signs, slight, of revolt. If Cameron secures his 55% deal (how is that going?) he won't need the liberals or maybe he won't need the entirety of his party to be safe.

Cameron is not someone I'd trust and said so prior to the election. His deal with the liberals and his subsequent actions haven't exactly confounded my distrust.
I'm pretty sure we are headed for a disaster.

JMW

http://www.ViscoAnalyser.com

 

[owg]

mrgoldthorpe wrote - "After all, we won't get wealthy selling houses to each other and taking in other people's washing. Though I'm surprised by the number of people I know who think we can."
I believe these statements to be true, but I wonder if they oversimplify the situation. What do others think? It may be a long time before we in Canada (and the West)can compete with China and India in manufacturing and assembly. So what remains? We in Canada survive on resource export although large segments of our population would rather we left them in the ground. Whither?

HAZOP at

http://www.curryhydrocarbons.ca

 

[321GO]

somewhat offtopic,

what strikes me in Europe is that a lot of people do not feel the need to do more than is solely expected. The importance of work seems to degrade in relation to leisure/family time.

Income is strangely not soley related to work it seems. If not from your employer, money will come from the government somehow.

This mindset is not the mindset they had post WWII, fiercely rebuilding industries/economies.

Most concerning, it seems the upcoming economies are now running on such "post WWII mindsets", which works out great for them.

 

[KENAT]

"After all, we won't get wealthy selling houses to each other and taking in other people's washing." - Over simplification or concise analogy, I'd tend toward the latter.

The idea of a 'service economy' always seemed a bit off. Recirculating the same chunk of 'wealth' gradually dripping it out in the form of more imports than exports doesn't seem very sustainable.

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[DrillerNic]

Unless teh idea of teh service enocomy was to export serviecs rather than things to teh rest of teh world: don't make & export cars, but export the car designs and engineering to foreign car makers; don't make & export ships but export ship brokerage and certigiying...

Of course, the questions to be asked are: are there enough jobs in ship borking and engineering design for 65 million people in teh UK and does the UK education system produce enough people with the right skills to go into these jobs?

So you might end up with a service enonomy where a smallish number of people are highly trained and educated, with highly paid, pretty secure jobs in engineering, finance, law, and a large number of people either unemployed or in low paid, low skilled call centre type jobs.

oh.....

 

[jmw]

Drillernic,
Could you please return my computer.
I have missed it very much since it disappeared.
I know you have it from the unique key dislocation fault that shows up in your post despite auto-correct and spell checker programs.
The feature which buffers "h's" until they can be placed after "e's" as in "teh" is one of the characteristics by which this individual computer can be recognised.
I lost this computer some time ago but have a strong nostalgic feeling for it after seeing your post.
I may pay a small reward.
I would guess a couple of beers would be acceptable?

Before you think of denying it, I should add that I recognise too the "i before e except after c" aberation.
I think "services" is the more usually preferred spelling, however this is another uniqueness that I recognise. Hence your spelling this as "serviecs" is a dead give-away.

What a lot of people don't know is that whereas once upon a time typewriters were uniquely identifiable by their typeface just as fingerprints and bullet markings are, the same is also true of computers leading to a new branch of forensic computer sciences within law enforcement and which now extends to spelling anomalies as well as programs that analyse word orderings, frequencies etc. and can identify the user.
I think you would be well advised to accept my couple of beers "reward" rather than have Interpol pounding on your door.

JMW

http://www.ViscoAnalyser.com

 

[KENAT]

Driller Nic you raise an interesting point that makes the idea of a service economy slightly less stupid, however, I find it hard to believe it can work.

If you can show me an example of a country where it has I'd be interested though.

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[SnTMan]

KENAT, working just fine in the US, as long as you're not working in a call center...

At least for now...