We’re constantly being told about the UK’s industrial decline. Britain’s manufacturing base constitutes just 18% of UK GDP, according to the Statista database. Coal mining, shipbuilding, steelworks, foundries… they’ve all either shrunk dramatically or evaporated completely.
Why? Reasons include the end of empire, political incompetence, bad management and militant trade unionism. Long memories will recall the notorious communist convenor Derek “Red Robbo” Robinson. During a 30-month period in the late 1970s, he led 523 strikes at British Leyland’s Birmingham car plant, notes the BBC, costing the group around £200m of output.
More recently, some have blamed Brexit. But the real damage to our manufacturing base occurred long before the UK’s 2020 exit from the EU. Yet governmental failure to establish a cogent post-Brexit industrial strategy isn’t helping British manufacturers.
Indeed, while the UK is still a top producer of weapons and pharmaceutical products, it would be very
