Now! Then! 2024! - Yorkshire On This Day

Excerpt

The noble lord, Lord Popplewell, talked about migration: he said that some were going out and others were coming in. Pakistanis were coming in while Yorkshire people were going out. Let me relate the experience of talking over this problem with one workman who is a friend of mine, close to where I live. There was a reduction in hours coming along, and we had been discussing the importance of time for leisure, and all the rest of it, and then he came out with a startling remark. He said, “If we have these reductions in hours, tha’ knows, we’ll be needing some Pakistanis to fill vacancies oop.” A very shrewd but, my word! what a poignant remark. Does that not light up the whole facet of the productivity drive that we have been after? If the factories had been there, if the machines were in the factories, and if they were working in modern ways, we should not need the Pakistanis at all.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

Abbreviations:

• ER: East Riding
• GM: Greater Manchester
• NR: North Riding
• NY: North Yorkshire
• SY: South Yorkshire
• WR: West Riding
• WY: West Yorkshire

Comment

Comment

Where was his mill precisely? Saddleworth? Diggle?

I hope someone will point me to some usable Pakistani material.

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Original

The noble Lord, Lord Popplewell, talked about migration: he said that some were going out and others were coming in. Pakistanis were coming in while Yorkshire people were going out. Let me relate the experience of talking over this problem with one workman who is a friend of mine, close to where I live. There was a reduction in hours coming along, and we had been discussing the importance of time for leisure, and all the rest of it, and then he came out with a startling remark. He said, “If we have these reductions in hours, tha’ knows, we’ll be needing some Pakistanis to fill vacancies oop”. A very shrewd but, my word! what a poignant remark. Does that not light up the whole facet of the productivity drive that we have been after? If the factories had been there, if the machines were in the factories, and if they were working in modern ways, we should not need the Pakistanis at all.

167 words.

Tags

Tags are assigned inclusively on the basis of an entry’s original text and any comment. You may find this confusing if you only read an entry excerpt.

• Automation (1) ·
• Immigration (3) ·
• Investment (1) ·
• Oliver Popplewell (1) ·
• Pakistan (2) ·
• Productivity-improving technologies (13) ·
• Productivity (13) ·
• Rhodes, Hervey (1895-1987) (3), Baron Rhodes of Saddleworth, WWI DFC and bar, mill-owner, Labour politician ·
• Saddleworth (6) ·
• Textile manufacturing (59) ·

All tags.

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