'Did Margaret Thatcher Destroy British Manufacturing?': A Note

Abstract

A significant point of controversy where the legacy of Margaret Thatcher and neoliberalism more broadly are concerned is the fate of Britain's manufacturing base, with critics alleging her policy's destructiveness, and supporters denying the diminution of Britain's position. Examining that base's performance relative to other countries over the 1979-2019 time frame (in particular aggregate and per capita output, the share of manufacturing in British GDP and the British trade balance in manufacturing), and other quantitative and nonquantitative data (like British consumption and production of machine tools, and the character of foreign investment in Britain), it concludes that Britain's manufacturing base has indeed suffered in significant ways next to its past position, and the positions of other advanced industrial countries, without real parallel among them. It also argues that not only has this protracted and severe decline occurred in a context of neoliberal policy, but that specific aspects of this policy (the monetary reforms of the early '80s, and government passivity toward the industrial sector's erosion since) can plausibly be connected with the problems of the country's manufacturing sector as discussed here.