Rachel Reeves can talk growth all she wants – one man stands in way of UK return to glory
OPINION - TIM NEWARK: Britain led the world during the Industrial Revolution, but there's a block an any return to such prominence.
Britain used to lead the world in inventions and innovative science but is now falling behind other nations. A new report shows the number of patents or claims for scientific copyright filed has fallen from 29,000 a year in the 1990s to just 21,000 recently and the direction is downwards. Despite having world-class universities, the UK has fallen out of the world’s top five in global innovation for the first time in over a decade, according to a report by the Centre of Policy Studies.
As every one of us should know, Britain invented the modern world, kick-starting the Industrial Revolution, building factories and railways long before other nations, discovering penicillin and other medical wonders, pioneering nuclear science and even developing the world wide web. What other nation has such a glorious tradition of invention? Yet we are now being surpassed by France, America, Sweden and Germany. Our scientific patents filed since 2000 have declined by 50% while Singapore has increased by 268% and South Korea by 169%.
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Interestingly, it’s not just a case of throwing more taxpayers’ money at scientists. Britain spends more money on research and development (R&D) than either Singapore or France but is getting less bang for our buck. This is because British R&D money is focused mainly on universities with UK business investing less than other countries on bringing that innovation to the market. British industry spends just $3 for every $1 spent in universities compared to US companies spending $7 and China and South Korea spending $9.
In 18th and 19th century Britain, inventions were almost entirely devised by the private sector to solve practical problems. Steam was first used to power pumps removing water from mines, then it became the engine behind railways and factories.
More dynamic nations in Asia are still keen to see science applied to industrial design, whereas there is a certain snobbery in British universities that favours pure science over practical uses. Some of this may stem back to the left-wing ethos that has taken over our higher education, being opposed to capitalism in all its forms.
It is the same snobbery that saw the children of Victorian industrialists turn their backs on commerce and embrace the arts or abstract science.
As a nation we need to get our hands dirty again. Practical solutions for practical problems. But too many of our politicians have their heads in the clouds and want Britain to virtue signal rather than make money. Take for example our Chancellor Rachel Reeves wanting to make the UK a world leader in Artificial Intelligence.
The only problem is that AI needs copious amounts of electric power and Climate Change Minister Ed Miliband is devoted to net-zero, which gives us some of the highest industrial energy costs in the world.
There is no way that any entrepreneur, British or foreign, is going to invest in AI with our electric bills at the sky-high levels they are now.
By contrast, the US is generating cheap energy through ignoring net-zero and fracking away, while China is still happy to burn coal to give its inventors access to cheaper fuel.
Equally, while business that ultimately supports inventors, our Labour government is loading up the private sector with needless costs, higher taxes and more red tape.
“Without a competitive tax regime, a reformed planning system, and better linkage between our ideas output and commercial business, high-growth businesses will continue to focus their energy and their investment outside of the UK,” says report author Ayushma Maharjan.
The worrying decline in invention in this country can be reversed but first you have to fix the economy that nurtures it, encourage the making of profits that can be invested in new infrastructure to make this an easier country to do business in.
Slash the cost of energy and reduce the overall tax level to encourage inventors to build their factories here rather than in more competitive nations abroad.
Above all, we must remind ourselves of the buccaneer spirit that let Britain invent modernity and encouraged the rest of the world to catch up. Let schools teach the stories of our great scientists and inventors to inspire our next generation.
