Comment "if you ask me" [Opinion First Person]

The 2008 financial crisis revealed the extent to which the UK had been over-reliant on banking and finance. Prior to that, manufacturing and engineering seemed rather oldfashioned; now they are widely accepted as critical to the UK´s economic future. So what is the role of government in cultivating a strong manufacturing sector? One answer is ´very little´: the government should not privilege any specific sectors but create a generically strong business environment, with low taxes, low regulation and a stable economic landscape; the market will decide which sectors would be best for the economy. That was the thinking before the financial crisis, and it is still with us, although it doesn´t take much analysis to find problems with it.