End of deep coal mining in Britain

If we have moved on to wages & living standards

https://foodfoundation.org.uk/new-evidence-of-child-food-insecurity-in-the-uk/

 

A small finite part of a larger problem.

Industry is dying. And what little remains the Climate Change cult (aka money lobbying politicians with degrees masquerading as scientists) will finish off with their green taxes.

Automation will then be the next huge unchecked problem. Business as usual for Westminster, then.

 

Not dying, but changing. There are a lot of less privileged people round the globe who will dig coal and make steel for a fraction of the wages here. For that reason the industry that is here needs to be much sharper, smarter, and value adding to justify the costs of business.

 

All true, but Britain needs to export something to pay for all the imports. When I was at school they told us about "invisible exports", which meant financial services, and that remains at least part of the story today, but it can't be enough, and will decline with Brexit. Meanwhile I read that the trial run in Finland of giving people a basic income from the state, which is not reduced if they also work and earn money, has failed, though I have not seen why it has failed.

 

The UK does need to export vastly more, and encourage manufacturing and production. Scotland being a net exporter adds significant balance to the UK current account, another reason Brexit is such a disaster.

No government in my lifetime has promoted industry and production with hard cash with anywhere near enough conviction in my opinion.

Universal income is a great idea, provided the capital stays in country. One of the biggest problems the UK has is massive capital outflow, a lot of it due to offshoring of profits and buying cheap imports.

 

Though I see it reported that Finland is ditching universal income, and analysis shows that it is a particularly expensive way of achieving those objectives.

 

I submit the Welsh valleys and the brownfields of the United Kingdom as evidence to the contrary.

Building housing all over our once beautiful countryside and human trafficking from the EU and outside isn't an industry, its a false economy.

 

The thing is if wages in other countries (say China) are a fraction of ours, it doesn't just give them an advantage in low tech stuff like digging coal or making steel. It gives them an advantage in every form of business. They are also moving into the same higher tech stuff too. It basically permanently tilts the economic playing field in their favour. About 15 years ago I worked for a big American multinational. They began to move all the manufacturing to Tianjin in China. At first the management of course would bullshit and say well, they will still keep the design, testing support etc in UK and Europe etc, but of course after a while it all moved to China and India etc. I even went to China a couple of times to help train the new people to take our jobs.

What we need to be asking is why are they so cheap compared to us. ?( They keep their currency artificially low to give themselves the advantage). At least Trump is recognising these things and taking steps like Tariffs etc to try and even things up.

"sharper, smarter, and value adding to justify the costs of business" Doesn't work, the Multinational will just move it to China, or the Chinese bring out a cheaper copy of the product.

 

Might well be a suitable source of coal. Low ash content, for a start.
http://www.westcumbriamining.com/
Let's hope it goes ahead.