The UK bet its future on being open to trade generations ago, and this has intensified as the UK's economy has been engineered into a focus on services rather than manufacturing; so when supply chains are disrupted prices rise & supplies are constrained.
The US/Israeli attack(s) on Iran are now having a wide range of disruptive effects as we know, but the latest to be identified as a potential problem is medicines.... that might be pretty serious!
While surely the war is stressing the supply chain, the UK by design is always weeks away from shortages of one kind or another. The UK's is not a self-sufficient society in any shape or form. Likewise for most if not all Western countries.
The shock to me was when the UK voted for Brexit when 50% of its food – I mean, its FOOD – came from the EU. How far can manipulation go to make people not know where and how their food comes from, and to then vote against their very own interests.
There are good reasons why, e.g., France heavily subsidises its farmers.
Yes, its certainly true that many countries are highly dependent on imports, although the UK is perhaps more so... this is often celebrated as the UK being a particularly 'open' economy, but as you rightly say has put food security at the mercy of supply chains being stable & sustainable, which as we are finding out is not always the case....
@ChrisMayLA6 I see two main factors in the decline of British manufacturing.
1. The make-do and mend attitude and lack of investment in the decades after WW2 (even though UK got far more Marshall Aid money than a defeated Germany did).
2. Margaret Thatcher.
@wood5y @ChrisMayLA6 I think there's a bit more at play than just that.
Exploitation of cheap overseas labour, and a lack of environmental concerns with overseas factories have played a large part.
As the pollution and destruction was not in their backyard and therefore not largely visible to their customers, companies have gotten away with bypassing most of the environmental legislation that places like the EU have introduced (and those protections are no where near sufficient imo, so it speak volumes as to the crimes likely committed abroad).
And the globalisation of the labour market should need no explanation. Why hire a skilled automotive engineer in Solihull (if you've ever owned a Land Rover, I appreciate you might consider this term a bit of a stretch) when for the same price you can get three in China?
I've had temporary issues with several of my repeat prescriptions already. It's been more of a problem since Brexit as EU suppliers favour EU member states when there is a shortage.
Given I can only order 4 weeks supply at a time, having even worse supply problems could seriously limit my ability to do volunteer work or just leave the house.
Even worse for people with more serious health conditions or who manage to hold a job because of their drugs.
Yes, we've yet to have any issues with my wife's myriad medicines, but I'm sort of expecting something to come up with the current four week repeat....
@ChrisMayLA6 Without causing arguments....
My memory of this is that it wasn't just an economic push toward less manufacturing. It was also a green push, away from our previous 'Dirty Old Man of Europe' gig.
Whether any of it was correct is kind of moot now.
Our politics runs on short term-ist philosophies. Expect a short term, not thought through, ultimately wrong 'solution'.
Hmmm.... I'm going to say the shift away from manufacturing preceded the green push, but it may well have latterly played a role?
Why do I remember everyone wearing CND badges long before Thatcher and Reagan then?
I think you're conflating two political moves; my parents took me (aged two) on an Aldermaston march so fo course you're right that precedes much de-industrialisation, but CND was not arguing for a the diminution of dirty industries it was focussed on nuclear weapons (and by extension nuclear power)... the green agenda around emissions is of a later vintage - after all Rachel Carson only wrote Silent Spring in 1962....
@ChrisMayLA6 I completely understand what you are saying, and agree with you.
I'm not a well educated man, AND my understanding is that the CND badge said GREEN (what we call green now). I'm fairly sure they were explicit in saving the planet. :))
I mean seriously, most of that movement are in the green party now. Green party nuclear policy is almost certainly legacy CND.
I'm not disagreeing with that at all.
I just think both sides are responsible for manufacturing decline.
@ChrisMayLA6 I do want to add that manufacturing literally anything is dirty, often wasteful, certainly environmentally damaging.
I don't think a decline in manufacturing is a bad thing at all. I think the exporting of the associated environmental and ecological mess is the problem these days.
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I'm at the point where I want concrete change.
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