The Manufacturer Magazine : Promoting best practice in Manufacturing

posted by david h on Fri 28 Mar 08 00:01

Unfortunately I state with confidence that the present UK Government’s Strategy and Thinking will eventually lead Britain to Industrial & Technological oblivion.
The sale of Jaguar and Land Rover et al to TATA Industries of India (they already own CORUS-ex. British Steel and other British household names) is a further sign of things to come and which in the long-term will not be good for UK plc or indeed USA plc. In 1997 when labour came to power, twenty-six of the world’s most eminent scientists and engineers (including eight Nobel laureates) advised the British government to adopt a strategy of building the future UK economy on the foundations of new technological products that no other nation had in its possession. This world-leading technological strategy fell on deaf ears as service industries were thought of as the UK's ultimate saviour and where new leading-edge technology and manufacturing was only considered as a second division player. Now we see over 30% of the UK economy is totally dependent upon the financial sector alone and where we all know too well now how this strategy is so volatile and where banks can move to a great extent to anywhere in the world if they wish to do so. Indeed, as time goes on there is no doubt that London will lose out to other financial centres of the world and where in time, service industries will not support the nation as once thought. Today, China has the first ‘trillion’ dollar company, over twice as large as our largest western corporations. Tomorrow Asia and particularly China will have many more trillion-dollar entities but where they will not be the service industries that Britain is so dependent upon, but scientific/technological manufacturing concerns that will dominate the world through their sheer technological prowess. The British government and unions say that jobs are now secure, but for how many years I would ask. Therefore this folly has got to stop and we in the West have to change to the high-tech strategy that was put forward to the UK administration some 11-years ago and before we all become beholden to the might of the South-East Asia technological juggernaut that simple will not stop. This is another warning of several that has been given over the last 10-years to our western governments and where this once proud economic block now runs the very high risk of technological and industrial extinction if there is not a ‘u’ turn quickly. For overall in the West, we need an economic strategy based upon new technological industries and not unadventurous and conformist service industries that never really had the strength in depth to provide the West with a long-term stable and dynamic future. Time has now therefore come to change our ‘spots’ before our economies totally evaporates and predominantly into the hands of others. For the war of the 21st century will be economic and not military and where this will be a far more devastating war than conventional warfare, as it is relentless, unremitting and continues indefinitely. Therefore let us see if our politicians in the West take note this time around for eventually the penny or the dollar hopefully will drop with them sometime soon !

Dr David Hill
World Innovation Foundation Charity
Bern, Switzerland