a very succinct nail on the head.. sadly v true
Britain used to build ships, engines, steel and cars.
Now it specialises in climate seminars, diversity workshops and explaining to unemployed factory workers why their sacrifice is essential for “the transition”. Nissan announcing more job cuts should set alarm bells ringing across government, but Westminster now treats industrial collapse the way a vegan treats a barbecue invitation awkward, unavoidable and best ignored.
Meanwhile Ed Miliband marches on like a man possessed by the ghost of a broken wind turbine. Every time a factory closes he responds with another speech about “green opportunity”, as though redundant engineers in Sunderland can simply retrain overnight as solar powered mindfulness consultants. The man talks about industry with the confidence of somebody whose closest encounter with manufacturing was once assembling an IKEA lamp incorrectly.
Energy costs are sky high. Employment regulation is strangling employers. Investment is evaporating. Heavy industry is being slowly suffocated under the warm comforting duvet of ideological fantasy.
And what’s the government response? Rachel Reeves stares blankly into the middle distance trying to calculate how many more taxpayers are still solvent enough to squeeze.
The Business Secretary remains hidden so effectively MI5 should recruit him for covert operations. And Miliband keeps charging ahead with Net Zero absolutism like a geography teacher who accidentally gained access to the Treasury.
British industry doesn’t need another lecture about carbon neutrality from politicians chauffeured around in luxury hybrid SUV's while ordinary firms struggle to keep the lights on. It needs cheap reliable energy. Predictable regulation.
And a government that understands factories are not evil colonial relics but the foundation of an economy that actually produces things. Instead Britain is being governed by people who think economic growth comes from banning boilers, fining motorists and installing bike lanes nobody uses.
The tragic part is that none of this decline is accidental anymore. It’s deliberate. They genuinely believe deindustrialisation is moral progress.
By the time Miliband is finished the only thing Britain will manufacture competitively is redundancy notices