Read on Twitter
One of the odd things about 21st Century Britain is that neither main party has any idea what our nation’s comparative advantage is - or even should be. https://twitter.com/anandMenon1/status/1343227556665978880
Popular: talking about an industrial strategy. Unpopular: having any strategy for industry
That gap is survivable in periods of stability - but is a huge problem in an era of change driven by covid + Brexit + net zero.
In so far as a new consensus has emerged it’s that people don’t like the comparative advantages we have (not just financial services but wider business/creative services) and wish we had more manufacturing.
It’s not this wish driving the Brexit deal I should say - the fact that we basically abandoned our offensive asks on services has much more to do with our positions on sovereignty/migration than on a view of where Britain will succeed in the decades ahead
The basic point here is that your trade (not to mention myriad other) policies would ideally be informed by a view of what your country will be able to do a good job of producing and selling. Time we got a view.
