Because sterling is much too strong, manufacturing as a percentage of GDP in the UK has shrunk from 32% as late as 1970 to the unviable level of barely 10% now.
We need to move investment to those areas with the highest returns for society as a whole. The best way to do that is to fix our over-valued currency.
The 2008 crash wasn't simply a financial crisis. We must also look at the wider economics imbalances which had built up and which directly contributed to the unstable state of the world's finances.
There is nothing to stop us reviving the UK economy via resurgent performance in manufacturing, exporting and import substitution provided we get the cost base charged out to the rest of the world on a competitive basis.
Reducing inequality is a complex task and will required a broad mix of reducing unemployment, increasing manufacturing jobs, lowering debt and cracking down on tax avoidance.
The growth rates in question have indeed been achieved in the UK before - in the '30s, following a devauation. It is disappointing that Gerry has not engaged with the proposals more fully, nor put forward some of his own in response.
Delve into the data and you soon find that the British economy is not in a healthy state at all...
Britain, almost uniquely, does not invest in itself.
As things stand, the British economy faces a future of decline. But it doesn't have to be this way - there is an alternative. Here, we publish a full pamphlet from John Mills outlining his plan for the British economy after 2015. For a summary, see here.
When all things are taken into account, the UK is in effect investing nothing in its future economy. The coalition may have conjured some temporary growth, but we need serious change if we wish to avoid long term decline.
Devaluation alone is not the solution to the UK's economic woes. But it is the necessary foundation needed for other policies to work.
There can likely be no repeat of the 2008 bailouts, sovereign states do not have the capacity. But the accumulating debt is now so large, the point of no return may have been breached. Euro collapse could trigger far wider meltdowns.
