
Dyson moves vacuum giant's HQ to Singapore - adventured
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-dyson-singapore/british-billionaire-dyson-moves-vacuum-giant-to-singapore-idUSKCN1PG205
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jayalpha
Dyson, a big Brexit supporter, plans also to build an electric car, in
Singapore: [https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/oct/23/dyson-
to-...](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/oct/23/dyson-to-build-
electric-cars-in-singapore-with-launch-planned-for-2021)

By the way, Singapore has an EU free trade agreement.

I respect engineering and entrepreneurship. But he sounds like a hypocrite. I
don't consider buying any of his products.

~~~
rayiner
I don't see the hypocrisy. Does the Singapore-EU trade agreement give EU
citizens the right to vote on laws that will be binding upon Singaporeans? Or
give EU citizens the right to reside and work in Singapore? If not, there is
no hypocrisy in supporting Brexit while relocating to Singapore.

It is disingenuous to portray the EU as merely a trade organization. It may
have started out that way, but today it is a supra-national government,
capable of binding the citizens of member states to laws those citizens oppose
(just as, e.g., the United States federal government can bind citizens of
Alabama to laws those citizens oppose). See:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulation_(European_Union)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulation_\(European_Union\))

~~~
graeme
That seems the wrong question. The better question is: why did he stay in
britain while it was in the EU, and why is he leaving now that the UK is
leaving the EU? Especially as he advocated that leaving would improve trade
and industry.

The answer might be as simple as: "Signapore was the right place and we were
planning this move before Brexit was on the horizon"

But it certainly gives the appearance that Brexit is bad for business and he
doesn't want to operate with the consequences of the policy he advocated.

~~~
switch007
Not to be a pedant, and it it doesn't invalidate your comment, and probably
for the benefit of others, but the UK is still in the EU.

~~~
graeme
Thanks, fixed it. Had meant to write leaving and not in.

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jimnotgym
I am not all that impressed with Dyson vacuum cleaners vs say Meile. A bit too
much form, a bit to little function.

Dyson himself is not one of my favourite people. This move seems very
hypocritical.

~~~
unfunco
The Dyson urinals I see in pub bathrooms are awful, they spray everything
everywhere, a bit too much form, a bit too little function.

~~~
RankingMember
Wait are we talking about urinals or hand dryers? I have yet to encounter a
Dyson urinal, but my sense of humor really wants one to exist.

~~~
unfunco
It was a joke that nobody seems to be getting, but I was implying that I pee
unaware into the hand-dryers.

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Kip9000
Brexit will only affect the ordinary working class and the poor. The rich who
funds this debacle will always have options cope or profit from it.

~~~
Barrin92
This seems to be a typical combination in a lot of countries nowadays. A donor
class that advocate for populist policies with well funded advertisement
campaigns that speak to the grievances of poor or less educated voters,
("hundreds of millions for the NHS!"), who then promptly pack their bag and
leave as reality sets in, because as we all know capital is very flexible.

The misled voters however are not and cannot suddenly pick up a new career in
Singapore or in the PR department of a big company, so they will have to foot
the bill.

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dschuetz
Wait, he'd rather support another country's economy with his faster growing
business than the economy of his own country and earn more money
there/elsewhere, while supporting the opposite? Err? No, his statement doesn't
make any sense which basically means it's a lie. His decision comes
conveniently right after the house vote and May's failure to convince the MPs
to take the EU deal. I suppose he is not such a Brexiteer after all.

~~~
nbevans
He is a Brexiteer who has seen the writing on the wall. That Brexit is being
thwarted and the probability of escaping the EU reducing every week. He is a
realist and a businessman and a Brexiteer. He would have loved to have seen
Brexit realised, I'm sure, but it wasn't to be. As such he now needs to turn
his attentions to a Plan B - to secure his businesses in better free trading
less bureaucratic locations - in this case Singapore.

~~~
jimnotgym
He originally said he was moving to Singapore because Britain wouldn't join
the Euro!

He seems rather confused..

[https://www.theguardian.com/business/2000/nov/05/theobserver...](https://www.theguardian.com/business/2000/nov/05/theobserver.observerbusiness4)

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ChuckMcM
I am always amazed at corporate communications that are so inartfully
constructed. The two statements _" Dyson’s company said the move ... was not
driven by Britain’s looming departure from the European Union or tax
implications"_ and _" the move was aimed at 'future proofing' Dyson."_

As I read it the second statement says "Stuff keeps changing in Britain and we
can't be sure its going to be good for our company so we're pulling up
stakes." And what has changed recently in Britain, oh I don't know, all the
Brexit stuff maybe?

I wish companies would own their decisions but they never do when they can't
spin them well.

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m0llusk
I used to do a lot of housecleaning for family and friends and recommended
Dyson vacuums for their strength and robustness. Since then I have got into
professional housecleaning and have found Dyson vacuums to be a terrible
curse. They are aggressively priced which makes people emotionally invested in
them beyond reason. They are typically too strong such that even skilled users
get overwhelmed and damage fringes and drapes and anything that isn't super
strong that gets too close. Although they may have been built to a high
standard when introduced current models have many parts made with vulnerable
plastic connectors. As such used Dysons tend to be coming apart in various
places and tend to be difficult to use because their unusual mass and strength
puts extra stress on the small plastic connectors they are built with. If you
want to clean up for a reasonable price without a lot of unnecessary
complications then staying away from Dyson products is a good first step. If
they are going to be charging that much and putting that much design work into
them then they should be advancing robustness and ease of repair. For the
fraction of a single Dyson I keep a fleet of Sanitaire vacuums working over a
period of many years because all of their components are reasonably designed
and can be simply swapped out upon failure.

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lgleason
His products used to be good. These days they are over priced, poorly made and
fall apart quickly.

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yomly
Does anyone have any insight it is like to work in Singapore as a developer if
you've previously worked in the West?

How are salaries? How is the work culture?

Is the industry growing such that moving there would be a good career play?

~~~
pytester
I have.

The salaries are low by western standards. I tripled my income coming back to
the UK.

The work culture is shitty. Long hours are routine. Developers are cogs in the
machine. The boss is always right. You need to do things by the book.

There's a hard class distinction between "worker bees" (includes developers)
and "managers". Those managers were typically clueless about tech, also, which
made interviewing a crapshoot.

~~~
hnick
This matches what the people I know said. It will of course depend on the
company. Facebook has a significant presence there now, I've only met one
person there but they were a local and said it's very atypical of the
Singapore experience (the office was nearly empty at 5pm).

~~~
jesterson
Global companies like FB or Google bring global work culture in Singapore, so
general assumptions about work might not apply to them.

They are notorious here for paying below average salaries though

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nbevans
The Remainers are desperate to portray this as hypocrisy by Sir James Dyson.
It is actually the opposite. He has been moving more and more of his business
out of the EU and UK to Singapore over the last 10-15 years and moving the
headquarters is the final step. It is a ringing endorsement to what global
free trade can do instead of protectionism, over-regulation and misplaced
political projects such as the single currency. And Singapore was consistently
held up as an example of what Brexit Britain could be like. Sir James Dyson
has given up on Britain because, all things considered, he realises it will be
many more years yet until a Clean Brexit is realised in the UK. And even then,
it could be decades - judging by the displayed ineptitude of our political
class - for the UK to catch up on the head start that Singapore has for high-
tech.

~~~
jimnotgym
He already was a hypocrite. His previous excuses for moving manufacturing to
Singapore include Britain not joining the Euro (the European single currency).
So the timeline

1) "I need to move to Singapore because Britain is not close enough to the EU"

2) "I want Britain to leave the EU"

3) "I am moving to Singapore anyway, so long suckers"

[https://www.theguardian.com/business/2000/nov/05/theobserver...](https://www.theguardian.com/business/2000/nov/05/theobserver.observerbusiness4)

~~~
nbevans
That was said by him in 2000 - the Lisbon treaty was 2009. In 2000 the only
path possible for the UK and EU was "further integration". There was no
ability to exit i.e. there was no Article 50.

One can imagine if exiting the EU was possible in 2000 he would have worked
that into his comments at the time. As far as he was concerned he had a
problem exporting products from the UK because of the strong sterling, most
particularly in comparison to the Euro. He needed a solution. Joining the Euro
was a possible solution at the time.

The EU also had no trade agreements with countries like Singapore or Japan in
2000 either - or even 2009 for that matter - further reducing his strategic
options.

