Quote Originally Posted by wendun View Post
Kerr, one small point. As you say the Lancaster firms were mainly in wallpapers, fabrics and floor covering. I am not at all certain that in these sectors UK production was uncompetitive. The problem was that the decisions to close were irreversible, plant sold off and skills base quickly lost. So far as I know there are no significant manufacturing jobs now in the Lancaster area and the major employers are the NHS and the University. A friend who was a chemist at Storeys now drives a bus.
I don’t know anything about the wallpaper and floor coverings industries, but there were a number of factors at play in the second half of the twentieth century including a drive to consolidate production – merging and centralising in order to try to achieve economies of scale, for example. Such industries are also very susceptible to changing fashions. The fabric industry was under pressure from competition from lower cost economies

It’s certainly true that once an industry has gone, it is hard for it to be reinstated. That’s one of the reasons I am so worried about a Labour government. It’s easy to say that it will just be for five years as a new generation of the electorate learn the lessons of the past, but the damage that their anti business policies do will last for much longer.