Like so many things in life we simply took things for granted and the short-term gain for a few, meant long term pain for the masses. We only need to look around us to understand that have become almost totally dependent on imports and have become a service economy with massive economic and social exposure in a very uncertain world.
Times of course change as does technology and the needs of consumers. Instead of investing to embrace new markets we chose to close our factories and source from low-cost labour markets. China, for instance has copied our products, exploited our IP and undercut those businesses who chose to continue to manufacture in the UK, forcing many out of business.
This outcome was further consolidated as the UK introduced and enforced proper safeguards to protect workers rights, health and safety and product standards. In doing so, we became increasingly uncompetitive against other nations, who often exploited workers and often cut corners.
Most recently we have imposed the highest energy costs in Europe, particularly damaging our energy intensive industries, put down in part to the need to tackle climate change. In doing so we have further supported imports from the Far East where they continue to invest in Fossils Fuels. Goods then travel, on heavily polluting ships with the whole life carbon impact conveniently ignored.
We of course manage this country by crisis and with an IMS bail out waiting in the wings we are fast arriving at that point. Interestingly our government showed signs of waking up to the threat, following the COVID pandemic and the wars in Ukraine and Gaza and the recent cyberattack on JLR. All these events and other factors underline our massive vulnerability and the need to secure against future shocks including physical and cyber conflicts.
Overnight they sought to switch on our defence industry before becoming the proud owners of our broken steel industry, which has itself been devastated by China and India seeking worldwide domination.
The recent publication of a new Industrial Strategy, was something of a whisper and felt more like a wish list than a serious attempt to invest at scale, ensuring we protect and grow our remaining manufacturing and explore ways to reshore and ensure we manufacture more of what we need to service future needs.
Ed Miliband points to a Green revolution with the UK at the helm. The fact is that could not be further from the truth. All the signs point to lost manufacturing capacity and jobs in the UK. Our car industry is experiencing a Chinese invasion, with copycat electric cars and hybrids at price points they simply cannot match. The Chinese already have a 95% share of the world battery market so that race is all but run.
The mission to decarbonise heat is set to follow the same path with UK produced boilers replaced by Heat pumps from the Far East. PV panels, which will be mandated by the Future Homes Standard, are almost all made in China. We still at least manufacture, from local raw materials, the bricks and the block we need to build the resilient homes we need to cope in a changing climate. Astonishingly successive Government and Homes England have put in place policies and incentives to promote the import of timber over masonry manufactured in the UK, choosing to ignore the damage to UK economy and jobs and supporting the long-term damage to natural habitats and carbon sync caused by mass deforestation.
We have reached a crossroads, our country is not performing, we face a range of unprecedented threats to our economy, social cohesion and worldwide stability. The further erosion of our remaining manufacturing capacity, combined with loss of hundreds of thousands of White-collar jobs to AI technology is set to plunge the UK into mass unemployment with the serious consequences many have not experienced. The recent political events is further undermining trust and confidence, making the stakes even higher.
It is time for the Government to show some true leadership and lead us back to the days when we were proud to support and source goods that were Made in Britain!