Re: Markets are mostly psychology
@ragnar
You are completely correct, not only does the UK have a manufacturing sector, it's a very good one in terms of contribution to GDP and value addition. It's also pretty high tech, and contributes about as much as the finance sector. The main difference between it and say the Netherlands (or Germany) is those countries also have a large machine tool* manufacturing sector in addition to their normal sector.
The claim "we don't make anything anymore!" is because almost all of this manufacture is for parts within a supply chain. Making a few relatively simple parts very well** is a better modern business manufacturing model than building a complex whole for a small company.
Perhaps the real issue here is the lack of jobs in the sector, but that is a result of mechanization, and the jobs that remain are still well paid.
* both building new, moving and modifying existing factories in everything from auto parts to chip fabbing.
** reliably profitable and more focused engineering often results in higher quality
Biting the hand that feeds IT
