Looking back at the industrial history of the UK is rather depressing so I've been mulling over some possibilities where things go if not perfectly, considering the factors they had to face that would probably require the intervention of Alien Space Bats, then at least slightly better. Two of the main problems seem to be that there were simply way too many companies so that they didn't have the size or resources to compete with large foreign competitors, this led to hasty mergers and also shotgun marriages under government pressure that were badly aligned, and created large 'national' companies that the government kept feeling compelled to support. This is especially true in the defence field where earlier on it was Vickers in the inter-war period or more recently BAE, aka. Big And Expensive, and Westland Helicopters, aka. Wastelands, effectively became the only game in town for aircraft/ground vehicles or helicopters respectively and the government has to keep going back to them under threat of losing X thousands of highly skilled Y jobs in the Z region.
The general idea is via a mix of on their own volition and some gentle government persuasion/bribery that various companies come together into industrial groups earlier than in our timeline and that it mostly shakes out into two main groups in the aerospace industry, the automobile industry, and the shipbuilding industry with a few smaller independents so that people aren't stuck with only the one manufacturer. This is what I'm generally referring to as my Twins strategy. Of course eventually they'll have to merge or join with foreign companies in multinational joint ventures or formal alliances but that's for later.
For the automobile industry I figured I'd keep things as simple as possible and just chart a different course for a British Leyland and British Motor Corporation/British Motor Holdings that don't merge and have slightly different makeups. With some more resources to spend on key things and some judicious restructuring they should be salvageable, although BMC/BMH is still going to have a rough time of it. Each group has one company that sells to a specific market like economy cars, another the mid-sized, another high-end/luxury types, one for sports cars, a section for industrial interests etc. Think the Volkswagen Group. For Aerospace in the process of divvying up the various companies into two groups a la Hawker Siddeley Aviation and British Aircraft Corporation so that both groups get a company each that can handle fighters, one for bombers, another for helicopters etc. This way no matter what kind of Operational Requirement the Air Ministry/Ministry of Defence puts out they can usually rely on getting at least two domestic proposals.
This brings it to the third main area that I wanted to look at but know practically nothing about, the shipbuilding industry. Can anyone point me to some decent online resources or books that cover the general industry after the war, and any that might cover the process of them being nationalised with the Aircraft and Shipbuilding Industries Act 1977 and their later privatisation via the British Shipbuilders Act 1983? Thanks.