[quote name='swee'pea99' timestamp='1308658651' post='1716727']
but didn't even begin to address the far more interesting and relevant question about why Germany can do what we can't - mass manufacture mass market goods - despite having far higher wages than we do.
[/quote]
My theory (which I'm gonna have to research and confirm, but it would be good to get others' views on) is that we lost the threshold capability (what you actually need to enter the market) back in the 60s and to regain it would require funding which nobody in the UK wants to contribute: anything halfway large like cars needs tens of millions and is longer term (1-2 decades - UK investors want their money back in 5-7 years), so this increases the risk, so even less attractive. Case in point: Triumph Motorcycles are now extremely successful with Royal patronage and sales that either rival BMW or were about to exceed as well as exceeding all the Japanese makes. In 1983 the company was dead in the water but was purchased by a property developer John Bloor who sunk £200m of his own money into it. IIRC it wasn't until 2000 that production actually started. So...17 years minimum + £200m...what does that say about being competitive in mass manufacture? How many people could and would be prepared to do this?
It's often stated that the UK is good at specialist, low volume niche products eg Brompton, and, Triumph excepted, this seems to be the case with just about everything: I think the reason for this is that you don't need access to large amounts of money to be successful - you can rely on your skills and relatively small/unsophisticated equipment.
