Benefits of the bloodbath
02 June 2009
This week sees elections for councils for England and Europe across the whole of the UK. It promises to be a bloodbath, but will it make any difference to the electronics industry?
This week sees elections for councils for England and European elections across the whole of the UK. It promises to be a bloodbath as far as the mainstream parties are concerned while turnout could be dismally low. But will it make any difference to the electronics industry?
To answer the last point first then sadly I think the answer is no. I think that the vast majority of politicians would lump electronics into ‘manufacturing’, whether anything was manufactured or not. And manufacturing, for all that I maintain that it is the only way to provide a sustainable and solid foundation for the country going forward, is not really on the agenda of most politicians. Some will pay lip service to supporting ‘high-tech’ industries while others get to sample the realities of what manufacturing means to a community when a car plant cuts back in their own constituencies. But none of them really see it as important.
In fact, to digress for a moment, I thought it was an interesting insight into a politician’s mind last week when Jack Straw commended David Cameron for pushing the debate on electoral reform. Straw said this issue was too important an issue for ‘ya-boo-sucks’ politics. I thought that summed up the self-obsession of the politician, essentially saying that their role is too important to take lightly, but there is no shortage of ‘ya-boo-sucks’ when it comes to tackling what are obviously less important issues like education, environment, health etc. I am not sure if manufacturing even registers on a list of topics worthy of debate, let alone a ya, a boo, or a sucks.
But all is not lost, although I do think in the immediate future manufacturing in the UK will largely have to fend for itself. Such is the disillusionment with our politicians that a disaster in these local and European electrons for the mainstream parties could well empower us voters into believing that real change is possible, and come the general election, which is only a year away at most, the emergence of genuine contenders is possible (I have far more faith in the British than to believe that this means a move to the racist right). While these new parties may be defined by specific policies (e.g. environmental, nationalist or a desire to stop road traffic accidents), there is a possibility that they may bring with them a more considered approach to our national infrastructure – and I include investment and commitment to industry within this.
It sounds a bit far-fetched. We have moaned about our politicians forever only to see the balance of power shift from the blue corner to the red and back again. But I can never remember a time when the public opinion of our great leaders has been so low. I really think that when the results are collected and collated, we could be witnessing the start of a new era.
In the short and medium term whatever happens will have a negligible effect on the electronics design community – we will have to rely on innovation, inspiration and hard work as usual. But that is nothing new and for that reason alone we can have confidence in the future.
Contact Details and Archive...
Most Viewed Articles...
Banner error!System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
at IMLGroup.Control_Banner.CreateChildControls()