There is a large, and rapidly growing satellite industry in the UK. No thanks to any British government prior to roughly 1997, which were all uniformly hostile

There is a large, and rapidly growing satellite industry in the UK. No thanks to any British government prior to roughly 1997, which were all uniformly hostile to space research/development, seeing it as a profitless vacuum. Thatcher, in particular, thought it was pointless and cancelled virtually everything that crossed her desk except for military spy/comsat proposals -- like Zircon. (In the late 90s the civil space industry finally became marginally profitable and attitudes changed: today the UK even has a home-grown space industry.)