Britain For Sale.

[robpage]

After watching Mrs Thatcher sell off Sealink to the American Chum of hers Mr James Sherwood ( See Jim she sold me out too ) who grabbed the land screwed up the ferries and flogged the remains off to Stena , I worked twenty plus years in the food industry . I tell you most people do not have a clue what goes into their food . Bovine Growth Hormone approved in many countries is linked to higher rates of breast and Prostate cancers . Estrogen is found in Brazilian and Thai chicken , doesn't apply to me you think , where does the very cheap chicken in the take away come from . The animal welfare standards are appalling compared to ours the NFU has previously complained that the differences in standards are unfair to UK farmers, for example claiming that half of the pork market went overseas when sow pens and tethering were banned.
However the scale of the problem has been revealed by a Guardian analysis of the most recent full-trade figures available, for 2007. It found that:
• More than half of bacon sold in the UK comes from the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany and Italy, where farmers can keep sows in smaller pens and for longer periods.
• 43% of other pork products come from Denmark, Germany the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg, where the same poorer conditions on pig farms are allowed.
• One quarter of poultry sold in the UK comes from seven European countries and Brazil, which allow higher stocking of chickens and do not force farmers to use more comfortable dry bedding.
• 3% of beef is imported from Brazil, where practices including hot branding, castration and dehorning of cattle can be carried out without anaesthetic. Products from those major importers accounted for about one quarter of all meat sold, by weight, in the UK that year. Total imports of pork, poultry, beef and veal made up one third of all meat sales, and it is likely that some of the remaining imports came from smaller trading countries also with lower standards.

[Jim Brady]

If you are not already watching BBC1 Andrew Marr's History of the World watch it oni.player well worth a watch.
Regards.
Jim,B.

[happy daze john in oz]

Rob #41 Back in the 50's my step dad was a pig breeder and even by then the British market was being effected by inports of bacon and ham from the Dutch market. Here in Oz we have some very large pig farms, apart from parliament, yet we import large amounts from Canada.
Car manufacturing now only takes place in 17 countries one of which is China. How long before it is down to about 10 or so. In UK Land Rover, now Indian owned, is the only one to incease staff, some 1100 over the last year. Sales are booming because Tata the owner is putting money into the company.
Here in Oz wages, and to some extent the value of our dollar, have been the main problem along with unions who wanted to rule the country. Western wages have outstipped production costs to the extent that if we continue to make just for th ehome market no one would be able to afford anything. We have to export to survive as home markets have limietd numbers to live off.
There are complaints here that overseas investmenst are buying up all our agricultural lands, yet in fcat less than 55 has gone that way. Here in Oz we eat 95% of home produced foods and export 65% of all food we produce.

[Gulliver]

..........Gulliver was praising the foreign goods......

Au contraire,Jim, Gulliver loves Britain and everything about it as you have probably gathered from his many posts elsewhere in these forums,and he is glad to write amusing articles which often attempt to inject a bit of humour into a debate, and is slightly more interesting to read rather than a depressing whingeing monologue of facts and figures decrying this great country.

Was Gulliver 'unlucky ' when, because of union interference and attitude of workers in the British car industry,that quality control standards and output suffered, necessitating him to turn to Johnny foreigner for his personal automotive needs ,never to buy British again.... as did many others ? I don't think unlucky is the word.

All the Best
Gulliver

[Jim Brady]

Gulliver,Davey I googled (individually) your three favourite cars VW Golf BMW Toyota. the three of them have a history of recalls not only in the UK but all over the world.Also in 2010 Nissan recalled 540,000 vehicles because of a brake pedal and gas gauge fault.I dont think 540.000 could be a friday afternoon lemon do you.
Regards.
Jim.B.

[Gulliver]

That's now Jim,not in the 70's/80's. I would think your googled figures would be a drop in the ocean compared to amount of faults back then.We buyers of British wheels left in droves,never to return.
I shudder to think what British Leyland would have been like now, Oh yes-sorry -Probably they would be the best-.I just remembered they would be built by immigrant workers on good wages and a union more like a benevolent H& S association looking after the workers needs rather than spreading discontent and fighting the government of the day. No bother or no chance of striking-and their quality control would be the best.
If we could turn back the clocks,there would still be a British car industry,a British Merchant Navy,a streamlined productive (including exporting ) British coal industry...and no unions.

GulliverCAR-Blue.gifCAR-Green.gifCAR-Yellow.gifCAR-Purple.gifScribe.gif

[Tony Wilding]

they say the Austin Allegro finished off British Leyland, yet i drove one many times, it was ugly, strange shaped steering wheel but reliable, i owned 3 Brand New Morris 1000 Vans and one Morris Marina Van, none ever let me down, all used the A type Engine, that was bullet proof, my last product from them was Wolseley 6/110 same as Police used, again reliable.

[Gulliver]

they say the Austin Allegro finished off British Leyland, yet i drove one many times, it was ugly, strange shaped steering wheel but reliable, i owned 3 Brand New Morris 1000 Vans and one Morris Marina Van, none ever let me down, all used the A type Engine, that was bullet proof, my last product from them was Wolseley 6/110 same as Police used, again reliable.

Tony,your Morris 1000 vans and your Wolseley 6/110 would probably be BMC,rather than British Leyland which was from 1969 onwards, which is when the rot set in (pardon the pun).
The long-lived A type engines(848/998/1098 /1275 cc ) were indeed bomb-proof;such a pity that the rest of the car was not up to scratch on those later small British Leyland cars & vans which used such engines.

You must have owned a quiet Monday morning pre-tea break built Allegro if it was so reliable-most were 'Friday afternoon lemons' or 'early evening strike day horrors'....

Gulliver

[Louis the Amigo]

Hi shipmates Talking about british cars' British leyland a princess was a lovely car to drive a sofa on wheels, I used it as a builders van 4 men and a cement mixer, never let me down . {Very lucky} my mate bought a british leyland jag at the same time a nightmare ,But Some of them were tea break cars and were not on the road for long, The vans were not good , there cant be many British leyland about today many were put into the junk yard years ago . But The Nippon cars were much better they worked !!! and never let you down

[Captain Kong]

I had a LADA for a few years. Buit like a Stalin Tank. Tough, a few cars crashed into me and they were damaged, not a dent in the LADA.
Tough to drive too until you got used to it, No Power steering, heavy on juice, But safe to be in.
Cheers
Brian.