Many of us when thinking about Britain's manufacturing power remember the days of old, back to the days of British Leyland at its peak. I realise i may not have been there at the peak but i remember how people talk of it and the pride once found in our country.
My dad often remembers his Rover V8 with enthusiasm. If I've been to a car show or museum he'll ask about the rovers. I must admit the old rovers do have a nice look to them and the V8's did and do go like stink. But in latter years, my years, rover fell flat. Working as a mechanic when a Rover came in you'd do what you could not to work on it. They fell apart. Don't mention a Rover head Gasket to me or i think I'll cry. On one car, the 25, we had to do a head gasket several times because the replacement gaskets would break near immediately. Thankfully they did finally fix that problem developing a new one!
But that's just how people come to think so poorly of British manufacturing in this country. Hence British Leyland crumbled and ask most people and they'll say manufacturing is dead in our once great country.
However, that's not exactly true. Depending on statistics we're about 7th in the world for manufacturing. We may not believe it but our country as it stands is being helped back to its financial feet by our manufacturing sector. The service sector is struggling to remain above the water but we are still building things. Not the big parts anymore maybe, but the little bits, the difficult small parts, chip boards. But we still have the car makers. We''ve still got BMW mini, it may be German owned but they're built in Oxford. The Honda plant in Swindon, they've struggled at points, especially more recently as they struggle to get parts from the now earthquake stricken Japan, nonetheless it is still there. Along with the makes of old, Morgan, Caterham, Aston Martin, Jaguar as well as introducing the new batteries of Nissan (by no means do i condone electric cars however) and the supercars of Noble and Lotus.
Engineering is right there in the heart of our country and will remain so if we expect to survive through our economic struggles.
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