So, instead we get a succession of speeches about how the UK is going to lead the charge into space technology, satellite development, robotics, artificial intelligence, quantum computing and lots of other cool stuff. Unfortunately, such wish-lists tend to sound more like letters to Father Christmas than a realistic and well-thought-through industrial policy.
It’s important, of course, to be ambitious and to have a hand in shaping the regulatory framework for industries of the future. But the trouble with trying to become the world leader in things that are big, shiny and impressive is two-fold: they tend to be eye-wateringly expensive and they might not work.
Such ambitions are also based on a misconception. Politicians bang on about making the gadgets of the future partly because they want to spark a revival in manufacturing jobs. But those jobs are a mirage: there’s been a surge in the productivity of high-tech manufacturing precisely because modern factories don’t require many workers.
When a sepia-tinted view about the kind of industries…