Following on from last week's moment for manufacturing, Evan Davis returned to a more usual narrative around the knowledge economy and the movement of the UK towards science based industries in the second part of his series Made In Britain (see the episode on iPlayer here).
Again, kudos to Davis and the BBC for attempting to get people interested in the economy and how it works. There are so many stories to be told about UK companies, foreign investment, the challenges of adaptation, there is almost too much material to use.
Which is why the moments where the traditional interpretation of the economy came back, using very traditional categories and a massive oversimplification of the value chain, were very frustrating. The characterisation of research leading to production and then to marketing doesn't really help people to understand why different activities in different industries will be carried out in different locations. Also talking about the UK as being an ideas economy and having gotten out of production misses the evolutionary path of industries, where early in their gestation the production is as hard as research and offshoring and outsourcing is not a realistic option.
One of the most telling scenes though was Davis realising that Chinese companies are advancing to the point where they can research and develop their own products for the much hyped domestic Chinese market. His face when chatting to the lead designer for the sneaker company was a picture. The strategy of letting our production go so that we can essentially live off selling or licencing intellectual property to foreign companies (a la ARM) may not be the best move to make.
Overall for folks not involved in these issues day to day it was probably a decent introduction. But the narrative and the impression it leaves is out of date and if that is the level of understanding in journalism and policy we're in trouble.
Oh and less of the faux Spooks pieces please Evan, if you'd like to get on the grid give Harry Pierce a call.
Best
Finbarr
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