Tag Archives: Lib Dem Campaign for Manufacturing

William Hobhouse

Making the Industrial Strategy Work, Part 1

By William Hobhouse | Tue 27th November 2012 - 11:15 am

As the economy slowly rebuilds, Vince Cable’s Industrial Strategy will play a key role in whether we will manufacture more in Britain. The challenge is to replace imports, export more and to be at the cutting edge of new technologies.

The case for government nurturing and supporting long term manufacturing growth in the UK is a compelling one. The challenge is to make this intervention work. This article is the first of four articles – brought together by the Lib Dem Campaign for Manufacturing – from around the country and from different industrial perspectives to inform this debate.

Government should have a different agenda from business. This needs to be said, because too often business’s agenda is self-serving. Shareholders want more profit and lower corporation tax, big business interests want favourable government legislation and employers want to lower the cost of employment. But nearly all these issues are valid for large numbers of businesses whether successful or struggling, whether exporting or not, whether investing or not.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 6 Comments
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    Alan Jeffs, I don't have an exhaustive, but out of the following countries: Kenya, Zambia, South Africa, Mozambique, Nigeria, Ghana, Botswana, Senegal, Tanzania...
  • Simon R
    Interesting idea. It would though effectively amount to loans, which would therefore place developing countries even more in debt - and there are still ongoing...
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    The problem with your scheme is that the developing world has a nasty habit of not paying its debts....
  • Peter Hirst
    This is a fine idea, though being outside the EU I don't see how it can be easily achieved. We should also work with our european allies to understand in the r...
  • Tom Arms
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