Editor's comment: We’re listening…or are we?

To me it only reinforces my doubts about how much our top politicians truly understand or back UK manufacturing. They may be foreign headquartered, but surely these companies – who directly employ thousands of people in the UK and provide work for many more companies in the supply chain – are justifiably entitled to comment about the possible impact trade hindrances such as tariffs and border checks will have on their companies and our industry.

I didn’t hear similar rebuffs from politicians when large financial institutions made comparable comments about their future and the City of London.

In my travels I meet people working in small subcontracting machine shops to managing directors and CEOs of multi-million-pound UK manufacturing successes, and they are all understandably proud of our country’s present-day engineering talent and the UK’s pioneering heritage in industry and manufacturing (a country responsible for the birth of steam power, the electric motor, jet engine and computing isn’t exactly a slouch when it comes to innovation).

In fact, many tell me that the ‘UK made’ brand still carries a lot of weight when they are pursuing new business both here and abroad. So surely if the UK is going to make a success of trading independently on a global stage we have to make the best of the talent and flair we have for designing, engineering and manufacturing things and create an environment where it is easy for these to flourish as much as possible.

The latest cabinet ministers’ comments only reinforce my suspicion that although governments like to appear responsive to the manufacturing sector’s concerns, behind closed doors they don’t carry much weight and they are more embroiled with their own day-to-day ambitions and personality clashes.

The same applies to this Government’s much touted long-term Industrial Strategy. Are its promises about investment, research, training and skills all simply paying lip service to business and industry lobbyists? To me ‘long-term’ should be about a sustained policy for the next 20 years, whoever is in power, not vying for the next available rung on the political ladder.