Driving force

THERE might be light at the end of the tunnel for the British manufacturing industry afterall. Have you noticed that there now appears to be a growing number of British built vehicles around Palma. The new Range Rover appears to be especially popular on top of the success of the Mini and the Jaguar. If Palma is just a snap-shot of the rest of the world then there is hope for manufacturing in Britain. Range Rover announced the creation of 1'000 new jobs this week adding to the hundreds which Nissan is creating at its plant in Sunderland. Now, as we all know the British car industry is in foreign hands but it still employs thousands of British workers at plants up and down the country. Sterling´s relative weakness against the euro is obviously helping to sell British exports. But British-based car-makers should also be congratulated for producing designs which sell. Successive British governments have allowed British manufacturing to decline. Financial services were the future as far as they were concerned. But the credit crunch showed the errors of their ways. Prime Minister David Cameron has said that he wants to boost British manufacturing but he faces an uphill struggle after years of neglect. Britain needs to diversify its economy. This recession has made it very clear that you can´t survive on financial services alone. It would be a real sign of the times if Britain´s manufacturing industry helped lift the country out of this severe recession.