14 July 2011 | Paul Snell
BBC2
Mondays, 8pm
★★
This show set out to “challenge the assumptions and myths” around the received wisdom that “Britain doesn’t make anything anymore”.
In fact, manufacturing still makes up 12 per cent of the UK economy, as presenter Evan Davis broadly tries to illustrate by flying in a fighter jet, riding in a supercar, and driving a 4x4 through the mud.
While this was excellent product placement, it didn’t exactly bust any myths and the show’s other analysis was similarly frustrating.
Davis said it is not a problem sending work to China because it is of low-value and the country is simply utilising the resources it has.
The UK is still handling the high-end work. But there was no insight into what stops China copying these techniques and taking that work too. As the programme explained, this is exactly what the sector in the UK did, adopting Japanese manufacturing techniques to regain its competitiveness.
I also wasn’t convinced by the boss of the Berwin & Berwin suit factory’s claim that “it’s not for me to comment” on whether end customers should pay more for products to support British workers. Who better to comment than a person who takes a decision to move production to China?
