Ship Building in the U.K.

[John Arton]

Just announced on the BEEB.
BAE to close their shipbuilding facility in Portsmouth. The facilities in Glasgow are still under review. Barrow is safe at present as it is building the new generation of nuclear subs. After the new aircraft carriers are completed the only orders on the horizon are for frigates and BAE say there is over capacity in their yards to fulfil any future orders.
Regarding Glasgow they have yet to announce their intentions and the reason being put forward for this is the referendum on Scotlands independence next year. Methinks dirty politics at work here.
rgds
JA

[robpage]

4``It was dirty politics that told BAE Systems where to build the carriers in the first place , namely Gordon Brown , I think that Alec Salmon has not thought the referendum through , why would the Royal Navy build its frigates in a foreign country , I think a lot of other things will fly South if Alec gets his way all the jobs at the Naval bases too . What is that old saying be careful of what you wish for , you may just get it

[Captain Kong]

I find it very sad that Ship building has or will be coming to an end in the UK.
It wont be long before we are asking germany to build our warships for us. The final humiliation..
.

. I noticed the other night on TV, we cannot build cranes in UK anymore, they are built in China.
A Chinese ship with a Deck Cargo of Container cranes arrived in Felixstow after a three month voyage from China.
Another nail in the industrial coffin of the UK sold down the river by our Quisling Politicians.
Brian.

[Keith Tindell]

I think this is a message to the Scots, Portsmouth has enough work until 2015, by that time the Scots will have voted yea or na, if the answer is yea, the work from Govern could be moved to Portsmouth. Think again Salmon. KT

[John Pruden]

how the hell can we keep anything secret that is installed in our warships if they are made in the likes of korea that want to nuke everyone? we are becoming a nation that's going to forget how things are made?jp

[robpage]

Sad day indeed Brian , but I stood by in many dry docks and watched the overstuffed body of British ship building die of over indulgence , to drill a hole in british Shipyard took a manager , a driller's marker out and mate , driller and mate , supervisor to check it , in Holland the fitter drilled a hole where you pointed it out . The shipbuilding had let itself get into that state , In the UK Ships Engineers could do no jobs even opening a valve to lap it in , in Holland you could do what you liked . I had lost my support for British Shipbuilding in the nineteen sixties , I have drydocked in the USA , Holland , Denmark , Singapore , Germany , Italy and the UK and the UK was consistently the lowest quality . So If I cried over the additional loss of shipbuilding now , they would be crocodile tears

[Captain Kong]

Hi Rob.
That is what destroyed Cammel Lairds in Birkenhead. The Unions. The Yard had an order to build 14 fruit boats for an American Company. on the first job they went on strike and stayed out for months , result all 14 ships cancelled.
The metal workers objected to the wood workers fixing wood battens on steel bulkheads, so All out,
They stayed out, and still out years later. The Unions do not take the blame. never do.
"All right lads I done me best but me hands were tied."
Cheers
Brian.

[cappy]

nail on the head there rob.....saw it in the 50s and 60s on my much loved tyne ......people knowing what was wrong but to feared to say .....show the poorest areas in this country and see where the unions had power backed by a labour mandate so far out is was run by commies......the men could do the work second to none but had to cow tow to the bloated unions .....the longest word known by the local union commissar .....demarcation

[robpage]

In the European agreements there is a Clause that allows you to produce your own defence equipment within your own territories without going Europe wide for a competitive tender . So If I am MOD Procurement I can order a Ship for the Royal Navy from a U.K. Yard or a Tank from a U.K. Factory without facing the competition laws within Europe . If Scotland left the Union , and remained within Europe , their work cannot be granted to them without a competitive tender from any European Union member who wants to bid . If they left , or failed to immediately join Europe , which is a lengthy process and not guaranteed to get non competitive work from The United Kingdom , as they will not be part of the U.K. . They will stand in line with Poland , and Italy , compete with them , Hey But they can remember William Wallace and enjoy the Highland Games

[robpage]

I Dry Docked in Middle Docks South Shields and Smith's North Shields , Great individual men , good tradesmen , dedicated workers , hands tied by a lazy non working commissar , who had ******** all to do all day but stir the sheet and get in the way of a good job being done . I have been a Union Member since 1966 and still am today . when the rear end does the thinking and the head spouts sheet the dog is the wrong way around , and that summarises the unions of the 1960s 1970s 1980s , where the officials made a good living and the men lost their jobs