According to 'The Economist':
"
SINCE standing for the leadership of the Conservatives last summer,
Theresa May has promised to put a new “industrial strategy” at the heart
of her government. Yet despite much talk, and even the establishment of
a department with the phrase in its name, there has been little
explanation of what such a strategy would amount to. At last some
details were published on January 23rd. The preface to a chunky
government green paper suggested that ominous changes were afoot: Mrs
May wrote of a “new, active role” for government.
The contents were more modest. True, it confirmed the biggest
increase in public spending on research and development since 1979.
Extra money for high-tech research will benefit the economy, which has
suffered from weak productivity and wage growth since the financial
crisis of 2008-09. Yet these funds had already been promised, last
November. Similarly, the green paper pointed to a “new” £2.3bn ($2.9bn)
housing-infrastructure fund—cash which has been announced a number of
times.
Beyond that, the strategy looks thin. It talks of tweaks to education
(see next story) and of boosting the participation of British exporters
at international trade fairs; unobjectionable stuff, but hardly
revolutionary. At the launch of the green paper, at a cabinet meeting
held in Cheshire, Mrs May earnestly spoke of “looking at the way in
which clusters can help”. Reporters were more interested in quizzing her
on what she knew about a missile that apparently misfired during a test
last year.
It may be for the best that the plans are less radical than trailed.
Mrs May had once suggested forcing companies to put workers on their
boards, a silly pledge that has since been dropped. And whereas a few
months ago she seemed intent on limiting foreign takeovers of British
companies, the green paper talked up the successes of foreign-owned
firms. That no bad news lurked in the paper probably explains why the
pound rose slightly on its publication.
Still, the government is making a habit of overpromising. What was
billed as the biggest shake-up of the railways in 20 years turned out to
be timid. The “biggest overhaul in a generation” of prisons has so far
amounted to even less. Even with the publication of the much-advertised
industrial strategy, Mrs May lacks a flagship domestic policy."
