Challenge: UK Still an Industrial Power

[gridlocked]

I think people are being too pessimistic. To make the UK an industrial nation it is not necessary to save Wedgewood or commercial shipbuilding, you just need a few champion Industrial Clusters.

So given a POD of the early 60s why wouldn't it be possible to have (as of 2010) a viable auto industry and the UK being a world leader in some scientific industrial field like nuclear reactors, cellphones or pharmaceuticals? Britain already has the third largest aerospace industry. Is it impossible to imagine a place, given an early 60s POD, where the competitor to Boeing is a British company?

I mean Germany and Japan have de-industrialized too, but nobody notices because both nations have so many champion industries.

 

[perfectgeneral]

Who killed british industry?

There are a lot of claims about the transition from war economy to peacetime in the UK flying about without much evidence. Since there clearly isn't consensus on the board as to what was going down, the onus is on those stating the 'facts' to provide evidence or be seen as revisionists by those with differing views.

I suspect there are price mechanism issues connected to currency rates, city investment and taxation. However there are probably social and political issues, both white and blue collar, that limit efficiency, competition, productivity and investment. Furthermore there are international factors that could impact on all these things just as much (or more) compared with domestic actions.

You could probably build a good case for a number of these explanations, with links and papers to cite. I think a patchwork of all these things is more likely in the complex world of 1945 onwards. Which will make a concise and definitive answer impossible. It doesn't stop speculative fiction on ways in which things could have been different for industry. I just feel that this stops being constructive when fictional 'facts' are disputed or promulgated as empirical history of the Empire.

Industrial leads that could have been retained or gained:

Computers (solid state, programmable)
Aerospace
Satellite delivery and radio telecommunications
Pharmaceuticals
Nuclear power

Just about anything with added value through research and skilled workers. The Japanese have much less access to raw materials and have made this model work well. Education is key to this. The NHS is not. However the health system was not ideal before WW2. There was room for improvement, even if more resources were put into education.