Comment by Kim_Bruning

10 hours ago

> That would require reindustrialising, which while possible would require a complete reorganisation of UK society and accepting a much lower financial standard (financially, at least) of living as the workforce moves to manual labour from services.

Not sure that holds up:

- Manufacturing: £785/week average earnings (Apr 2025) https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwor...

- Services: £708/week average earnings (Apr 2025) https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwor...

This is the 21st century — people aren’t running around soot-covered factories anymore.

Modern industry is about designing, building, and maintaining complex hardware and software systems, often with a big dose of automation.

It’s more likely you’re managing robots than shoveling coal.

1 comment

Kim_Bruning

thephyber 10 hours ago

In fact UK car companies WERE soot covered factories (eg Jaguar and Land Rover) as recently as the 1990s (when Ford bought them and completely upgraded their production lines).

The UK going alone on military equipment:

  - loses out on comparative advantages
  - needs to make redundant capital outlays
  - loses allied buffer countries
  - can’t maintain their own nuclear weapons (the uranium wasn’t sourced from Wales, ya know…)
  - needs to spend MUCH more than the average NATO member country (military spending as a percentage of GDP)
  - it’s not like the UK government budgets are overflowing with surplus to spend.