Politicians should `stop talking manufacturing down`

Published: 22 April, 2008

Alan Duncan, the Shadow Secretary of State for Business, has called for politicians to change their approach to engineering-based manufacturing. "They should stop talking it down," he said during a visit to the MACH manufacturing technologies show. "This industry is a great British success story which underpins the economy.

"Manufacturing should not be seen as dirty smoke stack industry," the Conservative business spokesman continued. "It has transformed itself into a leading-edge, high-tech, value-added success."

Lloyd and Duncan

Duncan (shown above, right, at MACH with the Manufacturing Technologies Association president, Geoff Lloyd) added that the sector will only continue to grow "if people leaving school see engineering-based manufacturing as a valued long-term career. Politicians, schools, universities and the companies themselves all have a responsibility to attract the necessary talent into manufacturing so as to keep the UK’s prominence in the sector.

"Manufacturing is a vital part of a balanced economy," he concluded. "We cannot live by services and financial sector alone."