One of the beguiling arguments of the Leave (the EU) campaign is that, released from the EU, British businesses will demonstrate their sterling worth by rising to new heights of success in oversea trade and business. John Hayes was on that tack in his letter in your March 17 issue. Is their confidence justified?
It was reported not long ago that Germany’s exports to China were five times as much as ours. Isn’t Germany even more embedded in the EU than we are?
Are we good at the big export activities? Well, we used to be one of the world’s big mass car manufacturers. Cars are still made here, but by French, German, and Japanese companies. We used to be big on trains, but the factory that makes them now is owned by a Canadian company (France, Germany, even Italy and Spain, still make and export those things). We used to make cameras, radio and TV sets, and such, but…..
We were a third partner in Airbus, but first dropped out, then came back in at lower level, then dropped out again to be just a sub-contractor. Airbus is now owned by EADS, a French/German/Spanish firm, under whose direction it has grown to rival the mighty Boeing for world-wide sales.
After WWII, we were into rockets for a bit, but it’s France – not us – that makes the big satellite-launching rockets now. And so on – in short, not a history of brilliant UK success.
Even the former Conservative Chancellor, Norman Lamont, not a noted EU supporter, said recently that it’s no good blaming the EU for our performance – it’s just that we aren’t very good at it.
I’m sure John Hayes and probably others are lifting their pens at this stage to accuse me of down-crying my own country. Well, pause a minute. One of the besetting problems in the UK, is our inability or unwillingness to see and accept our weaknesses and set about doing something about them. We’d rather look the other way or blame somebody else. We plainly have competent workforces in this country, because they function well in these big foreign-owned firms. We seem to have competent managers too, given the right leadership. What we don’t appear to have, although there are some honourable exceptions, is the ability to put together corporate boards capable of successfully directing large complex enterprises, where long-term thinking, vision, vigour, and a developed instinct for the particular business is essential.
Too often, our major companies have lacked the drive to innovate in design and to invest in modernisation of their operations. That’s a problem: what do we do about it?
There may be various reasons for the problem, but I suspect one of them lies in the educational field. It’s stunning, for instance, that the most expensive form of education in this country does not seem to produce people of the nature and calibre required for successful leadership of big complex enterprises, where being a generalist is not enough. There may be other reasons – let’s sort them out.
Meanwhile, don’t tout the expectation of miracles if we leave the EU. As others have said, we’ll lose a good deal if we go out, and the attractive picture the Leavers paint is very questionable.
John Tippler
Spalding
PS. Two facts just published regarding British steel production, which has been particularly hit by Chinese dumping.
1. The EU proposed to put in place protective barriers against unfair dumping. Britain led a small number of EU countries to block the proposed protection. Now we are reaping the result, with the possibility of losing tens of thousands of jobs.
2. China produced as much steel in 2013 and 2014 as Britain had produced over the 144 years since 1870. And the Leavers want to kid us they could easily do deals against such as China! Who are they trying to kid?
