A failing UK economy? Couldn’t be further from the truth Couldn’t be further from the truth

THE vision of Britain as a postindustrial, failing economy, which currently pervades the financial markets and national debate, could not be further from the truth.

The nation’s world-beating research universities – Oxford, Cambridge and London’s Imperial and University College – are huge sources of pride with their technology and life sciences spin-offs.

Almost all the UK’s tech champions, including semiconductor and software design firm Arm Holdings, cyber-defence company Darktrace and industrial software group Aveva (currently under siege from France’s Sch

neider) have emerged from the great universities.

Who can forget the triumph of Oxford in protecting the nation’s health with the fast-track development of the AstraZeneca Covid19 vaccine? Thanks to the success of AstraZeneca – and that of its rival GSK in developing vaccines and treatments for diseases including meningitis, HIV and respiratory conditions – the UK has become a magnet for inward investment in pharmaceuticals. Britain remains the number one venue in Europe for new high tech, ranging from artificial intelligence to fintech and the online gaming sector.

The fall in sterling has been destabilising in recent weeks. But, as we learnt after the UK was ejected from the exchange rate mechanism in 1992, when the pound depreciated, it was followed by a golden period of abovetrend growth.

In aerospace, Britain has two European champions in BAE and Rolls-Royce, as defence budgets around the world are ramped up in the face of Russia’s brutal war on Ukraine.

And in the creative sector, from The Crown to Star Wars and James Bond, investors such as Disney and Sky are counting on UK talent, film stages and postproduction facilities.

Britain’s cup is more than half-full, defying the negative narrative.