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  The argument used in the 80s was that subsidies had got us into a mess and that industry was not necessarily vital to our future.
  
  It seems to me that in the last few years the chickens have come home to roost. The consequences of an economy based on services, the City of London and enormous levels of personal debt have become clear.
  
  How are we going to correct our balance of payments deficit? What would we do if the City lost its pre-eminence? How are we going to drive down levels of personal debt while enabling some economic recovery?
  
  Germany, by way of comparison, has preserved a much bigger slice of its industrial base. Meanwhile its public finances are in much better shape and its people are positively debt-averse. You cannot help but think it has a far brighter long-term economic future and ask why we can't be more like them. Industrial decline there has frankly been much better and more carefully managed.
  
  The 70s aren't going to happen again and there simply will not be the need t for large-scale government subsidy again, as the industry that remains is far more robust.

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