Apologies to everyone for not replying a bit earlier - been busy with 'life' things
a reply to:
stumason
That's a bit of a generalisation there, Freeborn - there is ample investment going on in the UK that has been announced over the past year - Hitachi
move Rail business to UK, Siemens move Offshore construction to UK, Chinese investment in UK Nuclear power, not to mention a massive amount of
investment ongoing in the Highways, Railways- the Governments National Infrastructure Plan.
Sorry
stu, but ample investment?
Where is this investment?
There's not much evidence of any of it at all around here.
Fair enough, Hitachi are moving their rail business to literally just up the road from me.
Why?
Because they can pay time served tradesmen piss poor wages to do a quality job.
Skilled workers are to be paid slightly over minimum wage, non-skilled labour will be paid minimum wage.
And it hardly makes up for the countless manufacturing and engineering firms that have pulled out of the area or closed down completely.
Or the numerous companies that have cut their workforce over the last few years.
Even the 'shining light' of the North East Nissan recently announced 365 redundancies - but that didn't make national news.
The North East needs 100 Nissan's and Hitachi's.
...... - manufacturing is rising faster than any other sector in the economy and currently makes up just shy of 10% of total GDP (in some area's,
this can be as high as almost 14%), around £150 Billion a year and is growing very fast.
Sorry mate, its hardly 'growing very fast';
www.bbc.co.uk...
The growth in manufacturing and the economy is creeping towards 'pre-crisis levels'.
The North East was in a pretty poor situation prior to any 'crisis'.
All the recent 'crisis' meant was that other parts of the country were experiencing hardships that the North East and several other areas of the
country had been enduring for quite some time.
As for rail investment.
I won't play the party political blame game - they are all equally to blame - Labour /Conservative, two sides of the same coin.
One party takes the North East for granted, the other treats it with disregard and as a lost cause - the results are exactly the same.
HS2.
Means nothing to us - its coming nowhere near us and the only impact it will have will be by helping further marginalise and isolate us from the rest
of the country.
Zero hour contracts.
I know a hell of a lot of people who are on these - they tend to be temporary warehouse staff at distribution centres near by.
They have to wait by the phone every day, weekends included, to see if they are called in.
Sometimes they get called in and then get told to go home as requirements have changed.
Sometimes they get sent home after only a few hours work.
Sometimes they can get called in to start at 2pm that day or even night shifts - they have to be available and on call all day everyday.
No job security.
No guaranteed hours.
All for minimum wage.
Some sources claim as little as 600,000 people are on zero hour contracts, other sources claim its close to 1.5million.
Not everything is doom and gloom in the UK and there is much we should be proud.
But it could, and indeed should, be a damned sight better than it is.
There is a great imbalance in our society.
I've heard countless excuses and reasons for this, to be honest in my opinion no-one has ever come close to justifying it.
These imbalances need addressing as a matter of urgency because if they aren't they will rip this nation and Union apart.
I could go on, but its Friday night and though I'm not going out it has been a very busy week and I'm going to put my feet up, read a book, have a
look see what's been happening in ATS world this week and generally just wind down.
Saturday however will be another matter entirely.