Thing is the value of our savings hasn't fallen - £100 is still £100.
If Oddball puts up a rifle for sale for £100 and I offer him £70 'cos the pound has been devalued he'd tell me to bog off!
The internal economy is unaffected - my house windows are still washed for a fiver (err, OK I don't have a window cleaner, price might be higher!), your salary is the same, the price of a stamp is the same. A holiday in Cornwall is the same.
Imported cars are dearer so we buy less, exported cars are cheaper so we sell more. Easy enough.
As exchange rates affect whether is worth manufacturing or buying-in, so the structure changes. Take for example the massive greenhouses built in Kent http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/ ... eiled.html an example of how things become cheaper to do in this country than import (heh, distinct lack of labour in the process so that helps but meh). We will never be world leading shop builders or children's toy makers (our standard of living will have plummeted if we get to that point again) but making stuff is vital to this country's economy.
You ask why is the £ devaluing, along with the $ Indeed! 'The Markets' have a lot to answer for IMHO. Money doesn't disappear - it's all gone somewhere. And it's buying Euros. There is something in me that thinks trading in money and worse, the betting/gambling on value is really dodgy stuff. In the 60's Wilson devalued the pound as political decision - these days it's left to the markets. Give the choice I don't trust governments to get it right so maybe the market is the way to go. I'm even thinking about the worth of the UK joining the Euro 
but given that the Labour gov seem completely disinterested even given the current parity there must be something that is a really bad idea...
Oh, and Browns Economic Mythical. He has cocked it up big time - the future of my children was badly affected by unattainable house prices and student loans, now added to which are colossal future tax rises, a crippled labour market and a dismal retirement. Cheers mate.
Yep good and bad points with international trade.
As Oldun says I want to sod off out of here one day, and the place I would go would be the USA as far as I can see so I don't hate the US or their money but 2007 would have been the best time to go.
Un fortunately I could not go then even if I knew how to get my foot in the door.
Now my pension has changed I have to work a further 5 years to 65 and that is planed to slide towards 70 as I get closer to retirement. The other problem is that due to new technology introduced, my company will probably down size me out of their workforce before I reach 50.
I know when new Labour took over they made the decision the steer the UK workforce into commerce, trading, banking, IT etc. Industry had become a dirty word by then, I was talking to a college this week and he informed me that schools no longer teach any workshop skills woodwork or metalwork.
I hadn't realised that things had gone that far, I suppose it explains why I get some reactions from kids these days when I tell them I make stuff. 
Free speech is expensive these days!
the reason they dont teach kids industrial skills like woodwork and metal work is due to the fact we dont have any jobs in those fields for them to go into. fact. i was inline for a job teaching year 11-12 basic building woodwork, it was government funded. a few weeks before the kick off the government pulled the plug. why train kids to go straight on the dole? no construction, and no engineering left in the UK.infact, just as old un said, no manufactureing base at all.
Yes I agree Britain seems to have no function in the modern world as anything we do can be undercut by another country even the office work is now being done for a fraction in India. 
Maybe we should all go into the entertainment industry, the place is too cold and wet for a tourist boom.
What do we export these days I didn't know we made anything still, has Warran increased output
Free speech is expensive these days!
No manufacturing base at all? Not quite right...
14% of GBP (that's 14% of £2 trillion) is manufacturing sector, supports nearly a million jobs, 83% of overall exports and 75% of all UK research.
The bad news? After the early 1990s recession, swathes of industry were laid waste due to a mix of excessive costs and an uncompetitive exchange rate.
We now have a £70bn deficit in traded manufactured goods and since 1995 UK government has let manufacturing slip from 22% of GDP to 14% now and since 1965, six million manufacturing jobs have been lost. Contrast that with what the Germans have done with their manufacturing base (exports between 2003 and 2007 grew 60%)!
Financial and business services accounts for 30% of GDP of which only 7%-8% is 'financial', providing 4% of overall employment (similar to Germany).
All the more important that we let exchange rates fall to a point where exports more free flowing, else industry will slip even further into the abyss!
Manufacturing's been on the downward spiral since the late 70's .
Started with all the Union nonsense , British Layeland red Robbie, which led to Thatchers "reforms" in the 1980s . rather than boulster UK manufuacturing , by dismantling all the large players in engineering , such as Brtish Steel, Britsh Gas, Leyland , Shipbuilding, Mining (list goes on for a long time) she removed the need for a large skilled manual workforce in favour of Financial and Service economy. i trained as an engineer ot work in Manufacturing in the early 90's but even by then there was a dearth of any good jobs . majors time continuedhte process through indiffernce, and New Labour the same .
The 90's saw some semblance of rivival with the likes of Dyson , Nokia, Honda, but even a lot of these have since gone overseas. Our manufacturing has been smaller than our services for 10 years at least.
i've worked in manufacturing all my life , but all I've seen is factories shut in the UK and reopen elsewhere. Sad news is we cjust an't compete in a global economy on priceor technical abilty . There are more Phds in India than in the rest of Europe , how can we keep up ?
Hi tech is the only way , and we are leaders in Formula 1, medical devices and paradoxically the computer games industry ( Tomb Raider and Grand Theft Auto are both written in Newcastle) , but this will never generate the sorts of numbers we need.
can National Goverment do anything about ..the answer sadly is whatever flavour ..no
Heh, under a million employees in the manufacturing sector and over a million in the NHS alone - tell me that's not right!
Figures from 1996 from the Bank of England ...trust me I'm an MBa ....
looking for more recent figures now
some reading from the BBC ...
I couldn't find a 2008 breakdown - too early probably... mine were from 2007
Suspect that 'Government services' figure is much higher now!
Unsubstantiated from Wikipedia but no reason to doubt
In 2003, manufacturing industry accounted for 16% of national output in the UK and for 13% of employment, according to the Office for National Statistics. This is a continuation of the steady decline in the importance of this sector to the British economy since the 1960s, although the sector is still important for overseas trade, accounting for 83% of exports in 2003
Ok final word from me - Office of national Statisitics
All Jobs Agriculture & Fishing Energy & Water Manu-facturing Con-struction Distribution, Hotels & Restaurants Transport & Comms. Finance & Business Services Public Admin, Education & Health Other Services Total Services
SIC 92 sections A-O A-B C, E D F G,H I J-K L, N O G-O
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
All jobs DYDC LOLI LOLL LOLO LOLR LOLU LOLX LOMA LOMD LOMG LOMJ
Jun-78 26861 650 684 7130 1871 5333 1704 2795 5598 1097 16527
Sep-08 31527 481 197 3095 2282 6986 1857 6596 8048 1985 25472
