Imperial Party forum Forum Index Imperial Party forum
Looking from a great past towards a great future!
www.imperialparty.co.uk
 
 FAQFAQ   SearchSearch   MemberlistMemberlist   UsergroupsUsergroups   RegisterRegister 
 ProfileProfile   Log in to check your private messagesLog in to check your private messages   Log inLog in 

QUEEN WITNESSES FOREIGN OWNED BRITAIN WILL NOT RISE AGAIN

 
Post new topic   Reply to topic    Imperial Party forum Forum Index -> General Discussion
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
thomas davison
Party Leader


Joined: 03 Jun 2005
Posts: 4018
Location: northumberland

PostPosted: Wed Jun 06, 2012 8:02 am    Post subject: QUEEN WITNESSES FOREIGN OWNED BRITAIN WILL NOT RISE AGAIN Reply with quote

Not such diamond years: How the Queen's reign has witnessed the decline of British industry
By Alex Brummer
PUBLISHED: 23:07, 5 June 2012 | UPDATED: 23:07, 5 June 2012

The Jubilee has proved that the monarchy to be Britain�s most enduring institution � but the economic and corporate empire over which the Queen rules has, tragically, been greatly diminished over the past 60 years.

When Elizabeth II ascended the throne, Britain was the third most prosperous country in the world, lagging behind only the almighty United States and the Soviet Union.

Our corporate giants � a list of household names stretching from Blue Circle cement through Imperial Chemical Industries to shipbuilders Swan Hunter � ruled global commerce like colossi.
Golden era: The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh visit the London Stock Exchange in 1978

Indeed, back then, the FTSE 30 read like a Who�s Who of Britain�s industrial might, encompassing every facet of business from shipbuilding to car-making, electrical industries to chemicals, and banking to insurance.

Today, many of the illustrious names that helped put the �Great� into Britain have been beaten to dust by more efficient competition from overseas.

Others have been sold off to the highest foreign bidder as if they were unfashionable vases on offer in a car boot sale.

The sense of national pride that has been expressed across the country over the Diamond Jubilee weekend can no longer be seen on the floor of the London Stock Exchange, in the boardrooms of Britain or among the workforce.

It would be easy to dismiss the disappearance of the nation�s industrial and manufacturing behemoths as of no consequence; simply a result of the globalisation of the world economy and the advance of technological change.

Certainly, these have been important factors. But it can be no coincidence that in the same 60 years, the U.S. and German economies � the first and fourth largest in the world (Britain is now sixth) � have maintained and expanded their industrial heritage.

Corporate giant: Chemical manufacturer ICI was sold to a Dutch firm
In the U.S. many of the firms whose stock was listed on the Dow Jones Industrial Index in the Fifties are still sitting there proudly: DuPont, General Motors, General Electric, Boeing and industrial equipment maker Caterpillar.

Similarly, in Germany, most of the companies quoted on the Deutscher Aktienindex (DAX) reach back into the nation�s manufacturing past, including chemical firms BASF and Bayer, Daimler and BMW.

In contrast, great names from Britain�s industrial landscape have largely vanished. The Fort Dunlop factory in Birmingham, once a world leader in rubber, has been demolished and the site is now a shopping centre. The Westland helicopter test field in Weston-super-Mare has been turned into a helicopter museum, with the engineering work moved to Italy.
Of the parent companies that were quoted on the stock exchange when the Queen acceded the throne, only a handful survive.

Those that are no longer independent enterprises include textile makers Coats and Courtaulds, music firm EMI, the General Electric Company, aircraft maker Hawker Siddeley, Leyland Motors, Vickers and brewers Watney Combe Reid.

Those corporate survivors include financial firms Barclays and Prudential, Imperial Tobacco and British American Tobacco, engineer Rolls-Royce (saved from the scrapheap by Ted Heath�s government) and every woman�s High Street favourite, Marks & Spencer.

Survivor: Marks and Spencer is one of the dwindling number of companies still in British hands
The transformation of Britain�s industrial landscape is often attributed to the advance of the free market. The most pure form of this is Anglo-Saxon capitalism, whose advocates say ownership doesn�t matter, and that only efficiency and profits count.

But the truth is that other nations have carefully nurtured and looked after key industries, while successive British governments � of all political colours � have been less keen to play the patriotic card.

Instead, they have concluded that keeping markets open is what is most important, and the best measure of success is the amount of inward investment rather than a question of ownership.

This is all very well if every country plays by the same rules. But they do not. Despite being the home of Milton Friedman�s school of free market economics, the U.S. does not practice what it preaches.

For example, control of our ports passed from one of the nation�s great historic shipping companies, P&O, into the shoddy hands of Dubai Ports World in 2006. Yet the American government took a typically robust position. Though happy for Britain to control ports on its eastern seaboard, it did not want to see them in Middle Eastern hands.

Similarly, no foreigner is allowed to buy an American airliner. In fact, U.S. government workers are only allowed to travel on American carriers when on official business!

A prudent move? Prudential insurance is eyeing a move to Hong Kong
The same applies for broadcasting companies. Rupert Murdoch had to become a U.S. citizen and move his News Corporation to Delaware before he could buy the TV stations that became his Fox network.
In France, ten key sectors of the economy � from aerospace to yoghurt manufacture � are regarded as strategic industries and prevented from being bought by foreign firms.

Even British companies that have survived down the decades, such as Prudential insurance, have diluted their Britishness.

Six decades ago, the Pru stood at the centre of the UK�s commercial empire. It held at least a 3 per cent shareholding in all other major companies, giving it a major influence over decisions in businesses such as ICI and British Leyland. However, it tossed away that home-grown culture as if it were of no importance.

The traditional man from the Pru who sold us insurance has vanished. Instead, the firm is run by an Ivory Coast-born whizz-kid who has had his eye on moving the company to Hong Kong.

Of course, another factor behind our industrial decline was the bloody-mindedness of the trades union movement in the Seventies. Their crazy demands sabotaged scores of businesses just at the time that surging oil prices were bringing the economies of the Western democracies to a crashing halt.
Destruction: Striking British Leyland workers brought the car manufacturer to its knees
The unions are particularly to blame for the destruction of our home-grown car industry.

The other disease that has destroyed so much of Britain�s business heritage is management short-termism.

The dangers were identified by a Royal Commission headed by former prime minister Harold Wilson in the Seventies.

He found that our big battalion investors were more interested in short-term gains than in long-term investment in the nation�s industrial future.

But few took notice. Managements took a foreign buck rather than investing for growth.

A typical example of this was when Cadbury was taken over by U.S. giant Kraft Foods in 2009. Despite promises to keep open a chocolate factory near Bristol, Kraft shut it down � leading to the direct loss of 400 jobs and the indirect loss of others in the supply chain.

Sweet deal: Cadbury was taken over by US company Kraft in 2009
Clearly, cultural ties and history stand for nothing when there is money on the table.

Over the past few days, the UK has echoed to the sounds of Land Of Hope And Glory, Rule Britannia and Let It Be.

Yet EMI (a FTSE company in 1952), the home of much of this music, is owned by Citigroup of New York and is soon is to be sold to French-owned Universal Music.

Britain is left with a grotesquely unbalanced economy, with the value of assets of firms in the financial sector worth five times our annual national output. The assets for the same sector make up only 80 per cent of output in the U.S.

This disproportionate growth of banking and over-reliance on free markets over the past 60 years has undermined our manufacturing base and destroyed any semblance of loyalty to the company and any belief in heritage in most of our boardrooms.

And then we wonder why the economy has been so slow to emerge from the Great Recession, and why output is 4 per cent below its 2007 peak.

The answer lies in the fact that we have betrayed those historic names that were vital to Britain�s commercial advancement.

Who owns our water, power, oil, car industries-----not us, sold down the river for the money, Regain our industrial power, get out of the EU, Human rights laws, send home these unwanted so-called immigrants and give our own people jobs and homes.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Display posts from previous:   
Post new topic   Reply to topic    Imperial Party forum Forum Index -> General Discussion All times are GMT
Page 1 of 1

 
Jump to:  
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You can edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum


Powered by phpBB © phpBB Group. Hosted by phpBB.BizHat.com


For Support - http://forums.BizHat.com

Free Web Hosting | Free Forum Hosting | FlashWebHost.com | Image Hosting | Photo Gallery | FreeMarriage.com

Powered by PhpBBweb.com, setup your forum now!