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Well, our ageing housing stock, escalating house prices and lack of urban social mobility does warrant focus on housing, the knock on effects for the constructi

Well, our ageing housing stock, escalating house prices and lack of urban social mobility does warrant focus on housing, the knock on effects for the construction industry also show this as being a sensible economic policy as well as solving an increasing socioeconomic problem. I'm not sure how using a Welsh factory shows how this government is anti capitalist or anti manufacturing - given that Wales is in the UK and it is the UK government I don't think it matters where it is in the country. The factory is probably based there as a result of the government incentives about a decade to fifteen years ago which were introduced to get large corporations to base operations in areas of Wales who had been relient on the mines and who, at that time, had spiralling unemployment. Alos, The EU isn't anti manufacturing. Everyone is looking to the German model (high value manufacturing) as they are the only one bucking the downward trend and actually growing. The UK itself still has a very healthy manufacturing sector - I forget the exact figure but it makes up a double digit percentage of our GDP so it is not insignificant at all. I agree more could be done to improve the position of manufacturing but to look at the Chinese model and say "hey, we should have all the back here" is not the answer. Electronics, chemicals and high end goods we should have but let china make the Barbie Dolls and cheap tat, that's not what we should be aspiring to.

toyg 14y ago
My point was that it's not a British factory: it's a Sony-owned plant that happens to be in the UK at this point in time. Sony is a Japanese-American corporation; all this chest-beating is quite unwarranted. The point about capitalism is that "Euro" capitalists don't want to face any risk, as this story proves: British money didn't want to back the Pi when it was unproven, and even now they could only find Japanese-American money. I live in the North-West of England. I'm surrounded by modern (and mostly empty) high-rise developments built in the last 15 years, alternating with cheap new low-rise which have been rebuilt from scratch on the ashes of failed towns, and they're slowly decaying again, because the problem is that you can't maintain a nice house without a nice job, and construction jobs are not even for local people these days. the sort of jobs that provide social mobility are in services (as we all know on HN), in high-quality manufacturing, and in the public sector; and it's clear this government has no idea how to help those sectors.
- simonbarker87 14y ago
  I would argue that it is a british factor, regardless of the name above the door it is based in the UK and as a result help the UK economy. The reason for all those empty buildings is due to an old insurance policy (now illegal) that meant developers could build and insure against it being empty ... essentially the insurance company pays the rent if the building is empty and as such there is no incentive for the developer to actively let it out. Setting up a line like this is expensive and unless you are willing to foot the bill for the factory setting up the line then it is understandable that most factories would decline the work if they thought the market opportunity was small of the business plan was weak. Either way I think we both agree on this being a good thing but we don't know the context in which the work was previously declined

toyg 14y ago

My point was that it's not a British factory: it's a Sony-owned plant that happens to be in the UK at this point in time. Sony is a Japanese-American corporation; all this chest-beating is quite unwarranted. The point about capitalism is that "Euro" capitalists don't want to face any risk, as this story proves: British money didn't want to back the Pi when it was unproven, and even now they could only find Japanese-American money. I live in the North-West of England. I'm surrounded by modern (and mostly empty) high-rise developments built in the last 15 years, alternating with cheap new low-rise which have been rebuilt from scratch on the ashes of failed towns, and they're slowly decaying again, because the problem is that you can't maintain a nice house without a nice job, and construction jobs are not even for local people these days. the sort of jobs that provide social mobility are in services (as we all know on HN), in high-quality manufacturing, and in the public sector; and it's clear this government has no idea how to help those sectors.

simonbarker87 14y ago
I would argue that it is a british factor, regardless of the name above the door it is based in the UK and as a result help the UK economy. The reason for all those empty buildings is due to an old insurance policy (now illegal) that meant developers could build and insure against it being empty ... essentially the insurance company pays the rent if the building is empty and as such there is no incentive for the developer to actively let it out. Setting up a line like this is expensive and unless you are willing to foot the bill for the factory setting up the line then it is understandable that most factories would decline the work if they thought the market opportunity was small of the business plan was weak. Either way I think we both agree on this being a good thing but we don't know the context in which the work was previously declined