Why globalisation isn’t working – Part 1

 IN THE early 1980s much of the UK’s industry was still nationalised. The country was recovering from the intervention of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), inflation was high and cash was tight. Unemployment stalked the land, not least because a cash-strapped government could not invest in the nationalised industries that it owned, so they could not modernise and thus were losing efficiency and market share. The lack of efficiency was, inevitably, exacerbated by belligerent unions. 

The solution, which only Margaret Thatcher had the guts and political power to implement, was to denationalise through privatisation. Hence the industries were sold into the private sector. Some thrived, including British Airways, British Gas and BT, as they now had access to the capital they needed to develop. Others, such as British Leyland, British Steel and British Coal, didn’t. Leyland had rotten products and a fractious workforce. British Steel was too expensive and even then it made more sense to invest in new steel plants where there was high demand, Asia, than in the UK. British Coal’s deep mining operations delivered more expensive coal that open-cast mines. And of course, they had Arthur Scargill and the miners’ strike....<<<Read More>>>...