[BITList] Old Ford man - Must read !!!!

[HUGH]

Frank,

Added value is the thing - his mention of it is only the second I've ever seen. Value is added by physically transforming something worth little into something worth a lot - manufacturing industry does that very well indeed. The service industry adds next to nothing to anything.  The finance industry adds absolutely nothing to anything. All the layers of the government, national and local, add nothing to anything and cost a fortune.

We have slowly been hijacked by a very big clique of very rich right wing opportunists who control most of the media and much of what passes for life.  Result?  The level of political knowledge and gumption on the streets is abysmally low - the old keep them poor and pregnant rule - so any old bullshit goes by on the nod.

In my area, Gourock-Greenock-Port Glasgow in the 60s, we had 2 sugarhouses, a ropeworks, a canvas mill, a boatyard, 2 major marine engineering works, a linen mill, 3 working drydocks, 6 working harbours and 7 shipyards - plus sundry small ship repair places. We also had a couple of very big industrial estates housing places like Playtex, Sangamo Weston, Needle Industries and AMP, to name only a handful, not to mention IBM in Spango Valley. Now we have 1 small shipyard that farmed out the drawings for its last newbuilding, 3 working harbours, the rump of IBM, and bloody Amazon who are presently in trouble over "zero-hours" contracts. In the 60s there were about 250 shops in Port Glasgow, today there about 60.

Hugh.
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