Before the EU, we were a global player, we hod our OWN indigenous industries, generating wealth into the UK, into UK tax payers pockets, and into companies HQ'd in the UK that paid their taxes.
Now we have no industries, almost all our large employers are HQ'd overseas.
Our automotive industry is only here because our employment protection laws are amongst the weakest in the EU.
I was called out on a breakdown to a UK factory of a Japanese Tier 1 automotive supplier last week.
The machinery is all built in Japan and shipped here, none of it complies with any of the EU standards, you can't get parts for it in the EU, let alone the UK.
In the current global market UK PLC is too small to survive.
The companies that are here from abroad are only here to use us as either a way into the EU market (Japan) or because of our cheap labour and weak employment laws (BMW).
British Steel is now Indian.
There is no British Coal.
The SSC is owned by the french.
Our DNO's are all foreign owned.
We have no high volume automotive manufacturers in the UK, the high volume Tier 1 & 2 suppliers are all foreign owned.
None of these companies pay taxes in the UK.
When Sony had a plant in Bridgend, it NEVER made a profit to have to pay tax.
It only existed as a route into the UK market, it was a perception thing.
All of the profits were made in Japan, by the way that their accounting procedures were set up.
I can't say for sure, but, I expect that ALL of the foreign HQ'd companies will be the same.
I think that Sir Alec Issigonis, whilst of Greek origin was one of the founders of the British Motor industry and was a huge innovator, and that in turn led a revolution in automotive design and thinking, is turning in his grave now seeing what is happening to his country of birth and his adopted nation.
We are goosed, in or out.
Either way the country will struggle, my only saving grace is that I have less time left than I have had, so at least I won't have to suffer through another 50 years of this rubbish!
I am just ashamed of the world into which I have brought my children.
Not only is the country goosed, but the whole world is.
It is now run by global corporations that are by law forced to make profit above almost everything.
Remembering that profit for shareholders is one of the founding requirements of ANY company and if a company does not make a profit adequately then it's "board" are negligent and can be prosecuted certainly under UK law, the thing is it NEVER happens because these companies are simply too powerful.
We are going back to feudal times, where the "lord of the manner" are the global companies whose only aim is to make more and more profit for the super rich who are their shareholders.
Soon you will have to pay to work for companies, and it has already started where employers are forcing employees to provide their own PPE etc.
One of our problems in the UK, is that we make an honest effort to comply with the rules, such as LVD, MD, etc. etc. mainland Europe doesn't bother as much.
The Japanese companies that are in the UK, that I have seen basically ignore both the MD & the LVD for example by building and importing their own machinery.
IMHO, we are too weak to survive in the new global economy that is in place without manufacturing companies HQ'd in the UK, paying taxes into the UK economy.
No Government is strong enough to fight these global corporations to get tax out of them, because they are afraid that they will just up sticks & leave.
If we are "out" then the companies using the UK as a cheap way into Europe will simply re-locate to get the best deal for them, if that's in the UK, then they will stay, if it's elsewhere, they will move, they have to by LAW, they are legally bound to maximise their profits, and they will.
IMO the bankers that caused the crash should have been imprisoned for their incompetent management as they did not meet their legal duties in running their companies in a competent manner, Iceland had the right idea, but, didn't go far enough.
As I have said, no UK Government will have the guts no matter what side of the political divide to ever stand up to any large company.
