Manufacturing is such a dumb thing to do - which is why France and Germany have moved into growth while we are still in recession. Oh, they have a large manufacturing sector, so that can't be right!!
I work for one of the major manufacturers in the country, that has continued to invest in its facilities for the last five years, and just announced another three years of investment - we are talking £100s of millions. Our problem? We can't get enough people with a good education, and we watch the Government throw £200bn at the banks and about £100m at industry. And as for the idea that if we had relied on manufacturing we would be broke - tell that to Toyota, Honda, Sony, Rolls-Royce, British Aerospace, Alenia, Westland, GKN, Renishaw and any number of other World leaders in their markets. Industry is not British Steel and Rover, and never has been.
There is no simple solution, and there is no chance that we will take it apart and rebuild it. To do that we'd all have to agree to something, and one look at this thread tells you that's not going to happen. It would mean that we would have to compromise, something unlikely in the 'me' generation.
That's Griffin's problem, and the reason he can never make his policies work. When push comes to shove, we will never agree to it as we are not prepared to compromise for the overall good, and no single-issue party has ever managed to govern - even the Greens, and we mostly agree with them!!
Oh well, tomorrow I'll go back to being an engineer, and as Alfonso says, be regarded as someone with dirty hands turning a handle. Monday's good though, I'll be in a clean factory developing a new method of making a part that halves costs, doubles capability and will keep production in the UK.
