The more I studied and thought about the ratio between Manufacturing and Service Industry employees the more it drew me this conclusion.
That conclusion is this. The service industry cannot survive in an area where there is little or no manufacturing industry. It is manufacturing industry that creates the wealth to support the service industry.
One only has to look at the old Lancashire mill towns, who have not developed new industries. All the evidence is there, boarded up shops, dilapidated buildings, men and women on the dole, etc etc.
The aftermath of coal mine closures in the mining towns of West Yorkshire, after the 1984 miners strike, made ghost towns out of once prosperous communities.. Yes one can argue that there are large shopping malls in the big and prosperous towns. Unfortunately, what was lost, was, and is the community spirit.
These are just two samples of lost industry and communities. These two samples are from the North of England, the further North one goes especially into Scotland and the Nort East of England one can see the ravages caused by the loss of industry.
In 2005 no-one can have failed to see the demise of Rover motor cars. This is in the Industrial Heartland of the Midlands. It appears to me that Politicians only seem to wake up when the lid is being nailed on the coffin of local industries, and the fear of further unemployment in their constituencies makes them take notice.
Like we have said before always "too little too late".
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