Election special - the choice for engineers

The election battle that will be played out over the coming weeks promises to be the most interesting and closely fought since 1992, when John Major upset the opinion polls and narrowly beat Neil Kinnock’s Labour party.

But when the votes are counted, whichever party - or indeed combination of parties - finds itself in power on May 7th will be judged swiftly on many counts: not least how it sets about securing recovery and delivering economic growth.

Long before the recession struck, The Engineer repeatedly pointed to a fundamental imbalance in our economy. We warned that relying too much on the financial sector to drive the economy was fraught with peril, and argued for the importance of  a productive economy underpinned by engineering and innovation.

Today, few politicians would dare to argue against that, and most have their own version of Peter Mandelson’s “real, not financial engineering’’ rallying cry. 

But behind the platitudes, what do our senior politicians really think about Britain’s manufacturing economy? Precisely what role do they think engineering and technology could play in a rebalanced economy? And what would their technological priorities be should they get into power?