I wonder if Her Majesty the Queen sat on the throne as the morning of her Diamond Jubilee approached and pondered the mental capacity of her governments, both past and present; I know I did. She of all people will have realized that just because someone has had a privileged upbringing it doesn`t naturally follow that they are clever. With all due respect, she only has to look to her own progeny to see that although public school and university can fill a head with facts, it`s the capacity of the brain to manage, interpret and apply them that`s important – that rare ability to assess and come to the right conclusions, and then make sound decisions. I suppose we must be grateful that her lot can`t do any real damage. But the same can`t be said for some non-royals, where the superiority engendered by public school combined with knowledge and limited cerebral capacity can be such a dangerous cocktail. And if she was thinking along those lines, she will have had little choice but to be reminded of all those Prime Ministers that have kneeled before her.
Didn`t they realize, Her Majesty will have asked herself, just as I did, that economic weakness continuing over decades must have a root cause. And if they couldn't get their heads round that simple fact, how in the name of the future king are they going to deal with the number of other important problems the country has to face.
The Queen was no doubt thinking, as I still do, that countries that do really well, all round, are those maximising their resources. Australia mines precious metal, sheikdoms in the Middle East drill for oil - and Germany retains a skilled manufacturing base. When Prime Minister Blair was planning to solve this country’s problems by sending 50% of all school leavers to university, Germany was sending 67% of theirs into apprenticeships. While we allowed Foden and ERF to be sold abroad, losing control of the future of hundreds of jobs, BMW were deciding on how British workers would fit into the German economy. (The same deliberation TATA now has to make on behalf of India.) By not being totally reliant on one particular area of business, the Germans have maintained and spread their assets, and survived the better for it.
Our eggs, The Queen will have lamented, as I have on so many occasions, all seem to be in one basket, our resourse of established industries supported by a skilled workforce ignored. In her reign she will have seen British companies using British made machinery build large parts of the world that we know today. She will have seen roads filled with British vehicles of all descriptions and she will have seen a significant part of the workforce occupied in manufacture. Now, only 15% of business in the UK is in manufacturing; we are almost totally reliant on the service and financial sectors. The result of successive governments following the free market principle of natural selection is that we have had to spend billions of pounds of public money bailing out banks in order to save our constrained economy. This last ditch measure is the result of years of poor thinking and mismanagement - similar measures taken years ago with the manufacturing sector would have saved this country at least some of the pain it`s going through at the moment. While millions in the UK remain in poor employment and vast numbers of young people exist without the hope of a future let alone training, the banks, because they`re all we`ve got left, attempt to increase their reserves. And as we pay for benefits and bail-outs, the rising economies in the East hunger for the produce of manufacturing: the machines and merchandise needed to build a modern infrastructure.
We are not pleased, I hear Her Majesty say, speaking for the two of us, and demand better governance by truly clever and capable people. We demand a policy on business, not just a short term strategy. We demand a larger manufacturing sector with appropriate skills training. We demand long term, full employment.
I waved my Union Flag on the Sunday of the Queen's Jubilee parade, watching a procession of the country`s elite escorted by German built police cars and motorcycles. But I didn`t wave it for them, not any of them. Well, except one.
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