Photos: The Birth of Hi-Tech Britain

1. Richard

During this post-war period; UK science, technology and engineering were dominated by government and government contracts - largely for UK defence related projects. This absorbed much of the UK's finances and creative brain-power - at the expense of eg. the design & manufacture of high-quality consumer goods.

Workers in the UK defence industries produced great innovations. Some were developed for industrial use but few were released or exploited for commercial purposes.

So despite all this innovation, most of the products in daily use, and the components inside them, are now designed, developed and manufactured outside the UK.

This period was dominated by the UK government's involvement in and reaction to the "Cold War." This skewed much of the UK's economy & industry away from supplying the products & services which ordinary people wanted.

Recently, especially since 2001, the UK government policy has become dominated by reaction to "security" and "terrorist" threats, and now to fears about "climate change." Again, this has skewed much of the UK's economy.

Other countries - our overseas competitors - have taken a more balanced approach. So, we now import more & more of our everyday needs.

• 2 May 2008 14:45
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