No. Invisible earnings courtesy of the City of London and a hangover from building up our industries and funding universities during the period in which the British Empire enabled us to dominate world trade.. This brought about the incredible innovations and economic progress made in the Victorian era, of which the Scots were an important part. Our disproportionate economic success is largely down to those things. Scotland will have little to offer - a bit like most of the fringe EU members - once its oil has run out. I understand that's likely to be quite soon. But that's unlikely to affect its ability or otherwise to remain part of the EU. Being a basket-case economy hasn't stopped Albania being on the threshold of membership after all.
The UK has been the North Korea of Europe for many years now. At odds with its neighbours, dysfunctional, noisy and ineffectual ... and only still around because of a friendly superpower. :Wideyed: Just kidding, everyone loves the UK
I could say: "you're wrong" but that would hardly move the discussion along, would it? Tell me why I am as visually impaired as your average chiroptera then! Invective is easy. Reasoned argument more difficult surely? Also, I forgot to mention Britain's early emancipation of women as a reason for its economic success. Other countries and cultures - not saying which! - should have learned from this but do not appear to have.
if we can do it with out getting in to a English Scottish thing then cool. first and for me one of the more important ones is our coastline,fish, agriculture, forestry, (biggest in uk). pulp v.important. whiskey(big duty),energy,(big potential)tourism, university's,(up there with the best) oil. :smile: that and a good reputation abroad. every thing the E.U need and want, in particular access to the waters surrounding our cracking coast line.
I agree that those are important elements for our success and I should have mentioned them. I'd have to look at the figures for forestry but would guess that it's not as large a contributor to the UK economy as oil - though that's been declining for ages - and invisibles. We are a small island and agriculture can't be a reason for us overtaking France because it's much bigger with a similar population and its farming sector is huge. Something else I should have mentioned is the Royal Navy's role in our success. We couldn't have stayed at the top of the pile or won the war without it. And I don't underestimate the Scots' role in that either.
deffo we are all responsible for the successes and failures of the past,or are we? but there is no getting away from the fact we appear to be moving in different directions, weather that has anything to do with Westminster policy or the fat controllers of this world,who knows, but the divisions are there.
This is interesting. The service sector dominates the UK economy, contributing around 78% of GDP; the financial services industry is particularly important and London is one of the world's largest financial centres. London has the largest city GDP in Europe. The British aerospace industry is the second- or third-largest national aerospace industry depending on the method of measurement. The pharmaceutical industry plays an important role in the economy and the UK has the third-highest share of global pharmaceutical R&D. The automotive industry is also a major employer and exporter. The British economy is boosted by North Sea oil and gas production; its reserves were valued at an estimated £250 billion in 2007. There are significant regional variations in prosperity, with the South East of England and southern Scotland the richest areas per capita.
what will happen to the automotive industry if the u.k. walks? this is where it will become really interesting and reveling regarding publications should it ever come to an in out reff,
Yeah but these industries employ a relatively small number of people albeit in well paid jobs and feeds the growing inequality, what do we do with everyone else ?
Restricting the ability of people to move to Hotel Britain for a while will create quite a few vacancies in the building and catering sectors as far as I can see. That would be a start. People I know in the City also complain that they have to look overseas for "talent" too. Why can't they train up people already here to do those jobs? I mean, how difficult can it be to bring an entire economy to its knees by buying bad debts and indulging in dubious labyrinthine financial practices!!
"People I know in the City also complain that they have to look overseas for "talent" too. Why can't they train up people already here to do those jobs? I mean, how difficult can it be to bring an entire economy to its knees by buying bad debts and indulging in dubious labyrinthine financial practices!" Because, how ever simple that may appear, you do at least have to be able to speak English, write English and do basic maths. Given the truly dire state of the maths and English abilities of young people leaving schools in the UK these days there's no wonder big companies are recruiting from outside the UK!
Do you have proof of those sweeping statements? Anyway, I find it very hard to believe that non-native speakers can speak and write English to a higher standard than native graduates. I speak fluent French but even so have some insight into the difficulties one encounters communicating in a foreign language in a formal environment, having worked and studied at the Sorbonne, in Paris. Certainly my own children and their friends have very good communication skills, after having been entirely educated in the state system. They are also better educated generally and have a much better grasp of world politics, economics and ethics than I and my peers had at their age. They also passed whatever. Maths exams were put before them, and can do "basic maths" as you put it. So if there is any fault, it is not with them but those responsible for setting the exams. Friends who work in education confirm my views, and they should know. The oldies always look back and say "we had it tough. We had to work hard at school" etc. But we were the golden generation. We didn't suffer the war years and were born in a relatively prosperous era. It's time to look more closely at the ills we've visited on the previous generation and appreciate what they have to offer to sort them out, rather than berate them for the mess we've created, effectively telling them "Sorry there are no jobs for you. We f***** up by signing ridiculous agreements to open up our labour markets to countries with vastly different levels of wealth, so suck it up"! The fact is, employers recruit overseas because they can lower their wage bill and increase profits by doing so. Perhaps Nigel Farage is right. The time has come for a bit of positive discrimination in favour of British candidates - of ALL races. Labour, of course rushed to denounce his statement without first examining exactly what he said. He did not say white, he said British. And if Labour don't know the difference between ethnicity and nationality, perhaps they are not bright enough to be trusted to run the country.
Averages can never tell the whole story. London, for example, is a rich city, overall, but has pockets of severe deprivation.
Yeah but it's much better than the scummy north.. Right? All those poor people with dirty faces aimlessly wondering around complaining about the shit weather... Right? I mean how many of those wasters have deer and the like at the end of their cul-de-sacs?
Think youll find that only applies to devon and downwards,the rest of us have been doing maths and english perfectly well for many years. Theres lots of wonder how big companies get away with displacing and ignoring the native population by endlessly quoting these plainly untrue statements and prefering to employ non uk workforces. perhaps non uk nationals can be paid less(Aha! low wages mean lower class uk workers with lower level of teaching yet a dislike to being treated like shit,hmm,i wonder),treated differently,have easier traits to deal with etc. There is no excuse at all however far as i am concerned,dont like doing business here then you(for any employers reading) can go elsewhere,you wont be missed,someone will fill your parking spot quite quickly im sure. Perhaps,knowing that a lot of business in uk is now owned by non uk natives, they are employing their fellow countrymen or god forbid, a "cheaper" workforce . :Bag: The worst part of all this, is all this endless pontificating,by supposedly "intelligent talkaboutits" on these goings on and no fking getting off arses and doing anything about it,or indeed any intention of bothering for other reasons?. Regardless of level of teaching received as a child ,everyone born in this country has the right to be employed in this country,trained in this country, and this means they have priority over people not from this country. Simple stuff really,,anyone doesnt like it can fk off to whatever other country they hold dear(er).and quicker the better please,fed up of hunting for parking spaces.... Up the Tooting popular front
About as many as dedicated themselves for 25 years to earning enough money to buy a place somewhere they really liked by pursuing a career they loathed. And at the same ensured they saved enough to do so by forgoing expensive baubles, failed marriages, unplanned pregnancies, CSA demands, gambling losses, drinking to excess, smoking themselves to death, flash bikes, cars and holidays, drugs ... No silver spoon has ever been near my mouth mate. Do you even know where I'm originally from? Assume makes and ASS out of U and ME doesn't it? Mind you, once I had achieved what I set out to achieve after visiting Richmond with relatives as a schoolboy all bets were off. I can be contacted via the Rehab Unit at HM Prison Worwood Scrubs, or via Snell's Ducati when I'm on day release!
"Regardless of level of teaching received as a child ,everyone born in this country has the right to be employed in this country,trained in this country, and this means they have priority over people not from this country." Yes Gregotch. I know of two towns, Taunton and Merthyr Tydfil, that have cake factories where you can, allegedly, only get a job if you're Polish, because the bosses are too. That can't be right.
