Kayce, I agree more with MattR's summary than yours, apart from the post above - economics is made by people - us - and we move much faster than Governments who can't keep up!!
Thatcher didn't kill bad industries, she killed all industries. Along with the things that Matt mentions, she also killed the Export Credit Guarantee Department who allowed firms to venture into new markets by guaranteeing (basically insuring, for which firms paid a premium) their payments for work done. At the same time, the Germans and Japanese expanded their ECGDs, with the Japanese (for example) paying their firms for exports within 30 days so that the Japanese companies could offer their customers 180 days credit - you could sell their product before you had to pay for it!
That allowed a lot of German and Japanese companies to expand. If they were crap, they folded anyway, if they small but good, they expanded. Small good British manufacturing companies just folded due to the recession here in the UK from '81 to '86 and withdrawal of the ECGD support.
Governments are slow to recognise that we have become the cottage industry of the World. We cannot compete in volume markets, but we can earn a very good living form these so-called small high-tech companies if only we would support their R&D and production processes development activities. this Government is starting to recognise it with the new High Value Technology Innovation Centres focusing on manufacturing, automotive and process industries.
The issue with Bombardier is interesting. The EU Rules for this type of contract require a bidder to meet all conditions of the contract. Bombardier could not raise the finance for the leasing part of the contract, that's why they failed. Siemens on the other hand did raise that funding, with not a little help from their Government. If the requirement had been to buy the trains, the Government would have been ale to choose Bombardier on a technical level with Siemens. It was another case of unintended consequences being ignored by the Civil Service, irrespective of the Government in power!
(As an aside, this method of keeping things of our balance sheet (the Private Finance Initiative) is costing this country a lot of money. As an example, a hospital costing £100m to build, when let under a PFI contract to build and run the hospital for 20 years, costs nearly £500m cash that we, the taxpayer, have to find. And we still have to pay to staff the hospital, but the kit, etc.)
(As another aside, it was this trick, developed by McKinsey, that the Greeks use to meet the requirements to join the Euro!! Which sort of brings us back to those bloody bankers again! They might not have our money, but they seem to have us by the balls!!)
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