Arm Holdings is now owned by Japan's Softbank, because a Conservative (business-first) administration thought selling off the family silver was a fine idea. Th

Arm Holdings is now owned by Japan's Softbank, because a Conservative (business-first) administration thought selling off the family silver was a fine idea. This is pretty typical of the UK government's approach to the computer hardware/software industry. Had the first business computer industry in Europe (anyone else remember the LEO line of mainframes?) and a promising software biz, of which only bits remain. (The gaming industry is thriving, but the rest mostly ended up being absorbed by US multinationals. I could speculate that having a common language, in combination with a series of governments who believed in leaving things to the Invisible Hand, and a business culture dominated by accountants, were at the root of the problem ...)