Our new industrial revolution proves pessimists wrong
PESSIMISM about Britain is a hallmark of liberal metropolitan elitists. In sneering tones, they claim ours is a country in remorseless decline, unable to compete on the global stage or generate prosperity.
According to their narrative of despair, our society is hopelessly divided, our economy wrecked, and our democracy broken. All failings supposedly worsened by Brexit.
But this gloomy picture is contradicted by reality. Yes, we have serious problems, but Britain is still a remarkably successful nation.
For all the fashionable moans about bigotry and social exclusion, there is a tremendous spirit of unity here, as shown by the patriotic fervour behind the England football team.
Similarly, the economy has proved astonishingly resilient through Covid, while the raft of recent international trade deals and the G7 summit in Cornwall demolish the idea of Britain’s post-Brexit isolation.
Now, from the crucial manufacturing sector, comes further news of Britain’s enduring strength and capacity for innovation.
This week Stellantis, owner of motor giant Vauxhall, announced a £100million investment at its plant in Cheshire, to build a range of electric cars and vans.
BY CREATING the UK’s first major factory dedicated to electric vehicles, Stellantis will secure the jobs of at least 1,000 workers at Ellesmere Port, as well as 3,000 posts in the supply chain.
This welcome step makes a mockery of hysterical Remainer propaganda that Britain’s withdrawal from the EU would sink manufacturing investment here.
In fact, just the opposite is happening, as global industrialists recognise the special skills and diligence of our workers.
At the beginning of July, Nissan announced a £1billion electric vehicle hub in Sunderland, creating another 6,000 jobs on top of its current 46,000 British workforce.
“If we leave, Nissan leaves,” Alastair Campbell, the former Labour spin doctor and high priest of the pro-EU brigade, once warned. His prediction has turned out as ill-judged as his dodgy dossier on Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction.
While the progressives wallow in negativity, beacons of optimism are constantly being lit across industry.
European aircraft maker Airbus has just opened a £40million research facility at Filton, Bristol, where structural testing of large-scale assemblies, including full-size wings, can be undertaken.
In May, Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng performed the opening ceremony for RollsRoyce’s £90million test bed at Derby. Bigger than a football pitch and equipped with a host of advanced technologies, it is the world’s largest and smartest indoor aerospace test bed.
This is all part of a renaissance sweeping through British industry, exploiting the national gifts for enterprise and innovation that once made us “the workshop of the world”.
Analysis last month by Make UK – representing 20,000 firms in engineering and manufacturing – predicted the sector will expand twice as fast in 2021 as was forecast at the start of the year, with growth “firmly accelerating” to hit 7.8 per cent. Indeed, Make UK revealed that output volumes reported in the last quarter were at their “highest levels” since the group began its research 30 years ago.
It is true that industry now takes up a smaller share of the economy than it once did. As late as the 1950s, manufacturing accounted for 25 per cent of national output. The impact of foreign competition, cheap overseas labour and the rise of the services sector has reduced that to about 13 per cent.
NEVERTHELESS, industry is still a large and vibrant sector, employing almost three million people and providing 45 per cent of our exports. Moreover, its future is bright, buttressed by a Government committed to rebalancing the economy.
Far from inflicting terminal damage, Brexit has expanded horizons and encouraged selfreliance, as well as liberating manufacturers from the straitjacket of EU bureaucracy.
The pandemic, for all its agonies, may also be acting as a catalyst for regeneration.
First, it highlighted how vulnerable global supply lines can be in crisis and has acted as a stimulus to domestic production. Second, the challenge of fighting the virus has once more displayed Britain’s capacity for inventive dynamism, especially in the creation and delivery of world-beating vaccines.
Britain’s industrial heritage is a rich one. As we enter a new age of green and digital technology, this story is far from over.
‘A renaissance is sweeping through British manufacturing’