 | Home > Off Topic > The Réunion ~The Collapse of British Leyland |
 
|
|
|
| Supacat Member Since: 16 Oct 2012 Location: West Yorkshire Posts: 11018   
|
Just listening now ~ the series gather people from the time and with the benefit of hindsight they discuss events. Always an interesting listen, especially for anyone who has an interest in the UK car industry.
 Click image to enlarge https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000lz6n |
||
28th Aug 2020 8:16am |
|
| Rashers Member Since: 21 Jun 2015 Location: Norfolk Posts: 3566 
|
Thanks Supacat.
This is a great series and programmes like this are why I used to listen to Radio 4 a lot - well until Brexit and Covid-19. Every other show seemed to be talking about it, and I some how don't listen as much as I did. I will have a listen. Interesting what you say about Union membership Tim. I am no lover of Unions, but I have been a member of a Union since I was 16. I believe I am the only Union member in my entire company! I am a member as an Insurance in case things go wrong (as they seem to every now and again). Everyone seemed to be a Union Member in the 70's (closed shops etc.). I wonder what the Union membership in the country is now compared to the days of BL? |
||
|
28th Aug 2020 9:14am |
|
| Supacat Member Since: 16 Oct 2012 Location: West Yorkshire Posts: 11018
|
Some amazing facts for British Leyland ~ 250,000 employees for just 1m vehicles.
They all seemed to agree that the Government could have done more to help or less to actually hinder. |
||
|
28th Aug 2020 9:23am |
|
| Tim in Scotland Member Since: 23 May 2007 Location: The Land that time forgot Posts: 3753 
|
Cowley - one line 138 welders, same line for BMW Mini 38 welders!
Yes, but Mr Wilson’s “White heat of technology “ didn’t seem to apply to investment in modern equipment. I had to laugh at the bit about Longbridge’s filthy state - We used to dread it when the ship managers booked ships for Drydock in the UK because we would have to walk miles through the shipyard to use a toilet because the ship’s system could never be hooked up to a discharge line to ashore like it could be anywhere else in the world and when you got to the facilities the lighting didn’t work, they stank, the floors were running wet and never any hot water for the showers even as late as the 1990’s Pangea Green D250 90 HSE with Air Suspension, Off-road Pack, Towing Pack, Black Contrast roof , rear recovery eyes, Front bash plate, Classic flaps all round, extended wheel arch kit and a few bits from PowerfulUK Expel Clear Gloss PPF to come 2020 D240 1st Edition in Pangea Green with Acorn interior. Now gone - old faithful, no mechanical issues whatsoever ever but the leaks and rattles all over the place won’t be missed! |
||
|
28th Aug 2020 9:46am |
|
| Rashers Member Since: 21 Jun 2015 Location: Norfolk Posts: 3566
|
Bit like when Diesel Trains were introduced, the Unions maintained that there had to be a Fireman in the cab with the driver
Things like this are the reason why large proportions of society have shunned the Unions. I think at grass routes level, as you were at, Tim, they can be very useful as a go-between Management and Employees. Whereas when their leaders speak on the telly, such as the Airline Pilots Union BALPA cannot understand why Airlines are laying off Pilots, that to me comes over as being naive. They must realise the trouble all airlines, without exception, are in at present? I was a child during the Miners Strike. I find it quite surreal that the reason for the strikes, protection of Coal Miners jobs because pits were closing, was completed a few years latter by the environmental concerns of burning coal for industry power. Just a BL anecdote. My Mum and Dad bought a Mini in the 70's. After a few months (outside warranty) the paint started coming off in flakes off the rear end. The main dealer said there was nothing wrong Mum's friends Husband worked in a body shop and took the car in to his place for repair. His opinion was the car was not sprayed with an undercoat or primer. Top coat had been sprayed straight onto the metal. A Friday afternoon car or one that was half finished when there was yet another Longbridge walk out? |
||
|
28th Aug 2020 11:51am |
|
| blackwolf Member Since: 03 Nov 2009 Location: South West England Posts: 17603 
|
In the 60s and 70s in Oxford I can clearly remember seeing bare metal car bodies from Pressed Steel Fisher standing out in the rain or being delivered on lorries with no protection of any kind, prior to going to the paint shop. The rust had started even before the car had been built.
|
||
|
28th Aug 2020 11:55am |
|
| markb110 Member Since: 22 May 2010 Location: Guildford Posts: 2656  
|
Funny how in the days of old cars were replaced due to rust, today it’s due to depreciation vs labour costs.
Tomorrow it will be due to the infotainment systems not working. |
||
|
28th Aug 2020 12:28pm |
|
| Rashers Member Since: 21 Jun 2015 Location: Norfolk Posts: 3566
|
But your not far off the bar. When one part of this fails (in what ever vehicle) it will probably be terminal for a vehicle. No one will be able to go down Halfords and buy a new Radio for £150 |
||
|
28th Aug 2020 1:01pm |
|
| Tim in Scotland Member Since: 23 May 2007 Location: The Land that time forgot Posts: 3753
|
Just look at mobile phones and tablets pCs etc , manufacturer stops supporting the operating system and the gear eventually just stops working. The Disposable Society. My ancient iPod keeps on going even though the battery is hardly holding any charge so it has to live plugged into a USB to power it. Pangea Green D250 90 HSE with Air Suspension, Off-road Pack, Towing Pack, Black Contrast roof , rear recovery eyes, Front bash plate, Classic flaps all round, extended wheel arch kit and a few bits from PowerfulUK Expel Clear Gloss PPF to come
2020 D240 1st Edition in Pangea Green with Acorn interior. Now gone - old faithful, no mechanical issues whatsoever ever but the leaks and rattles all over the place won’t be missed! |
||
|
28th Aug 2020 1:11pm |
|
| blackwolf Member Since: 03 Nov 2009 Location: South West England Posts: 17603
|
An interesting thought, it will be the removal of support for the software as you say.
It must be hard for the young folk of today even to imagine a situation where a car would need both sills replacing due to rust at three years of age before its first MOT, but it was a regular event back then. Now only Defenders still have chassis which are seriously rusty at three years of age! |
||
|
28th Aug 2020 1:23pm |
|
| Supacat Member Since: 16 Oct 2012 Location: West Yorkshire Posts: 11018
|
Marginally better than brittle plastic meaning 2/3rds of your exterior panels fall off if bumped lightly in a car park.
|
||
|
28th Aug 2020 3:46pm |
|
| Supacat Member Since: 16 Oct 2012 Location: West Yorkshire Posts: 11018
|
My recollection is that it was about closing highly profitable pits because the people who worked in them didn't vote Tory. Industrial vandalism by a Government for party political reasons. Shameful. |
||
|
28th Aug 2020 3:51pm |
|
| Rashers Member Since: 21 Jun 2015 Location: Norfolk Posts: 3566
|
I agree Supacat. The heart of the battle was between Maggie Thatcher and the Coal Miners Unions. My Aunt and Uncle live in a old mining village in Northumberland and I would say the likelihood of a cross in the Tory party ballot paper up there (even today) was pretty slim although bizarrely, since the last election, I believe they have a Tory MP now
There is still an awful lot of bad feelings about that strike forty years on. Feelings that I can never understand having never lived up there or lived through it. However you feel about it and which ever side of the fence you sit on, a lot of people made a lot of sacrifices. Neither Mrs Thatcher or Mr Scargill had any of those concerns or hardships. What I was getting at was forty years latter and the mines would be shut because of the environmental concerns of burning coal. The coal is still there. Coal Powered Power Stations are closing all over - or being swapped onto burning biofuel. I believe I read last week that one of the last open cast mines in the UK is being forced to shut due to environmental activism. It has plenty of coal to dig out. If Maggie hadn't picked a fight with Scargill all those years ago, the Pits would still be shut now due to 'Friends of the Earth'. Agreeably, the miners would have got a few more years of employment. Consett in County Durham was a big steel town. I remember as a kid driving through. All due respect to the people who live there, but it was pretty grim. It's a much nicer environment now. The steel works closed years ago. Kielder water was built to supply water to the steel mills around Middlesborough. Most of these were shut before the reservoir was even filled. We are a country that survives on service industries. 'Would you like chocolate sprinkles on top of your cappuccino?' It's all pretty grim really  |
||
|
28th Aug 2020 4:37pm |
|
| Supacat Member Since: 16 Oct 2012 Location: West Yorkshire Posts: 11018
|
Well I got my enhanced British Coal pension paid in full from the age of 50 ~ so there was a small silver lining. I've worked for a few different businesses since in a number of industries, but nothing comes close to the quality of the people I met in those days.
It saddens me each year to get the annual report and see the numbers of pensioners declining. For those literally at the coal face it was a tough, dirty business. Easington was one of my stand out pit visits ~ pit ponies underground in stables complete with a cat, and a 30 minute train ride from shaft bottom to the working faces under the North Sea. |
||
|
28th Aug 2020 5:52pm |
|
|
|
| All times are GMT |
< Previous Topic | Next Topic > |
Posting Rules
|
Site Copyright © 2006-2025 Futuranet Ltd & Martin Lewis
