We’re fighting for our economic lives

Are the chickens coming home to roost for a government that has stood back and watched as our engineering and industrial base declines?

I keep reading articles in my newspaper suggesting that the high street economy is running out of steam and the public sector is getting too big to be supported.

Anyone who suggests that our engineering sector needs a bit of TLC from the government is accused of wanting to go back to the 70s and prop up failing businesses — but that’s not what we mean. It’s about putting people who actually produce things, rather than sell products to other people or shuffle paper around, at the top — and I mean the top — of the economic agenda.

There is also a need for investment, tax breaks, training, compulsory purchasing by the government of UK products and technology wherever it is appropriate.

As a country we are in a dogfight for our economic base for the the first time in 200 years and it’s time we woke up to the fact.

S Charlton

Norwich

Norfolk