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There\’s two ways to read this

Mr Cable said the success of the automotive industry and the Automotive Council – a policy group made up of government and industry representatives – “offer a model we want to replicate in other industries and sectors, one underpinned by a coherent, considered industrial policy that works with the grain of markets”.

He added: “That means developing a strategic vision for where our future industrial capabilities should lie, and how to deliver it, to ensure UK manufacturers are in the best possible shape to compete for global business.”

The benign reading is that it keeps the fools in committee meetings where they can do no damage.

The not benign one is that Cable thinks such councils can actually do something which is a return to the days of government picking losers.

And of course for the eonomy as a whole the entire idea is complete barking nonsense. For the important industries of the future will be the ones we know absolutely nothing at all about as yet and therefore cannot plan for.

6 thoughts on “There\’s two ways to read this”

  1. Are yes,the return of the planned economy. So successful in Soviet Russia, Mao’s China, the outstandingly successful North Korea, (runaway winner of every Earth Hour). With Vince at the centre of things, it is no wonder that the Coalition’s Dash for Growth has been so remarkable.

  2. Corporatism, kids with long hair, housing bubbles, political instability, extremist unions, Wales winning Grand Slams…yes, it’s the Seventies all over again.

  3. yes, it’s the Seventies all over again.

    But Michael Gove is no Maggie Thatcher. Nor are Theresa May, Caroline Spelman or Cheryl Gillan.

    And both Callaghan and Wilson had achieved far more by 1972 than Ed is likely ever to do.

  4. Ah, the mixed economy with some central direction of industrial investment. Such a dismal failure in West Germany, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.

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