4 ms·

Given the exchange rate over the past 25 years, it's quite remarkable that the UK has any manufacturing base whatsoever.

• toyg 7y ago
  Indeed, it almost doesn’t. Before Brexit, the sector was constantly crying for help; the car industry itself almost disappeared in the ‘80s, before the government explicitly targeted it. When Jeremy Corbyn was elected leader of the opposition Labour party, pre-Brexit referendum, one of his main rallying cries was about rebuilding a real manufacturing sector; there is almost no word of that anymore, unsurprisingly - now it’s all about maintaining current levels of economic activity, which we’ll be lucky to do.
• pjc50 7y ago
  The UK's remaining manufacturing is high value-add, and much of it is also on a smaller scale than mass car production. The UK satellite industry does very well, for example. We need to appreciate what our real strengths and weaknesses are, and huge armies of semi-skilled workers assembling things are not going to be one of them.