Revered and reviled in equal measure Margaret Thatcher, who died last week, had a profound impact on the UK’s engineering sector. Your responses to our poll on the subject showed a readership divided on whether she changed British industry for better or for worse.
Revered and reviled in equal measure, Margaret Thatcher, who died last week, had a profound impact on the UK’s engineering sector. Your responses to our poll on the subject showed a readership divided on whether she changed British industry for better or for worse.
More than a quarter of the poll’s respondents felt that Thatcher’s industrial policy disposed of inefficient and unproductive industries and helped Britain become more competitive. A similar amount however, claimed that lack of investment in industry on the former Tory-leader’s watch led to a collapse of manufacturing.
Meanwhile, 10 per cent of respondents agreed with the suggestion that privatisation, another hallmark of the Thatcher years, helped foster competition and innovation.
However, the largest group of respondents (38 %) agreed with the statement that deregulation of the financial markets led to an over-emphasis on the financial markets.
But financial services was regulated (much more than manufacturing)…it’s just that the regulatory authorities were weak and Government turned a blind eye whilst all the tax revenue was rolling in.