In my boyhood the UK helped to win the War using British made Lee Enfield rifles, British built Centurion tanks, British Spitfires and Hurricane fighters and Wellington bombers, and Clyde or Belfast-built warships.
After the War we resumed producing Leyland buses and famous motor cars: Rileys, MGs and Austin Healeys; Rolls Royces, Lagondas and Bentleys; Rovers Jaguars, and Jowets (in Bradford), to name but some. By contrsast the German Volkswagen company was limited to producing Austin Sevens on licence. The Duke of Edinburgh pointed out that the British had invented Television and the Jet Engine. What wasn’t to like?
Today the situation is different. Our buses are all imported (and railway carriages and engines as well, I suspect), the only surviving British-owned car manufacturer is Morgan (I think), the world famous Sheffield steel industry no longer exists and even the windmills that generate the clean electricity of which the government is so proud are made abroad.
So what, if anything, are we still good at?
Helpfully, earlier in the week (15th October)the Guardian’s Business Editor, Nils Pratley, provided a list.
The top eight areas, in no order apart from the first two are:
1. Financial Services;
2. Professional Services
3. Technology;
4. Creative industries;
5. Advanced manufacturing;
6. Defence;
7. Life sciences;
8. Clean energy.
These are the eight “growth driving sectors” in what might be called Labour’s “Industrial Strategy.”
As Pratley points out, it may seem odd to head an Industrial strategy list with services, but times have changed even if the nomenclature hasn’t. We were taught to be very proud that Britain had been “the Workshop of the World,” that “Made in Britain” was a universally recognised mark of quality, and that “Sheffield Steel” really had been “The best in the World and the envy of the World.”
With the wisdom of hindsight we can see that in the second half of the 20th century we placed too much emphasis on things the World used to want and propping up the industries that provided them, and not enough on discerning the what the World’s wants would be in the future, and developing the skills necessary to satisfy them.
In other worlds, to move from manufacturing things to supplying services.
That it didn’t matter whether we earned our living by supplying goods or supplying services was about the only issue on which I agreed with Margaret Thatcher. Now I admit that both of us went too far. There is an argument that an economy needs a manufacturing base on which to support service industries. Both Germany and France have managed to achieve a better balance.
With this in mind, the Government’s policy needs to be to enable the above eight sectors (plus two more I shall mention later) but to avoid nursing then. We are already almost a quarter of the way though the “new” century, and the leading sectors of the last may not be the areas which the World wants or which we are good at providing in the future.
To take each of the above in turn:
1. Financial Services. Our economy has lived on the back of these for years, but we may have lost our edge. Joining the Euro would have helped maintain London’s pre-eminence. Brexit was and is even more damaging. However, I suspect most of the earnings of the City are achieved thought sophisticated gambling, along with tax havens and money laundering, all of which are morally dubious, so perhaps we shall be happy to move out.
2. Professional Services. These include Insurance and Legal services. For the latter, Sir Keir Starmer’s commitment to the Rule of Law, including International law, should strengthen our position.
3. Technology. In this sector our major strength in design needs to be supported by an increase in the provision and prestige of technical education. We need skilled artisans as well as gifted designers.
4. Creative Industries. It has become the fashion to mock qualifications in “performing arts” as somehow substandard and frivolous. Yet this is an area where we are and remain respected members of the top World Leagues. The reduction in funding of the BBC, a major sponsor of the arts, is nothing short of criminal and should be reversed, along with support for the BBC’s news and communication services.
5. Advance manufacturing. I’d be interested to know of what.
6. Defence. This is a heavily subsidised area. Maybe it is in all countries, but I doubt that British defence industries would flourish without heavy government assistance. Procurement by the services is hugely wasteful.
7. Life sciences. The universities play an important part in this and should be treated far more generously. The current fashion of precarious short-term contracts for lecturers and researchers is inappropriate. The pharmaceutical industry tends to exploit the NHS. There is a strong case for at least one nationalised firm dedicated to supplying the NHS with drugs at cost.
8. Clean energy. Given that we are surrounded by oceans in which the tides come in and out twice a day (and four times in the Solent) without fail, we should become World Leaders in wave and tidal power.
I’m surprised that Higher Education is not included in the list. There is a huge demand from international students to study for first and higher degrees, and do post-doctoral research, in our universities. The previous government’s obsession with keeping them out beggars belief. Let’s hope this policy is soon reversed, and not just to subsidise domestic students.
The Tourist Industry is also a major area for earnings. We have a history and culture which interests people from many parts of the world as well as our own residents. We need to preserve the physical manifestations of it. Among other “relics” our cathedrals and historic churches should be maintained from the public purse, not be forced to pester their declining congregations and exploit their visitors. We need a smoothly operating transport network and hospitality facilities to enable visitors and natives to explore our country without trauma.
A tall order? Yes. A ten year pogramme, at the very least.
