It's a little comical considering that Germany, Switzerland and many others are much further along the way towards a knowledge driven re-emergence of manufacturing that doesn't depend on cheap labour.

Britain is a glorified hedge fund with no manufacturing to speak of.

There are historical reasons for that, but the extremely lax approach to regulation plays a huge role as well. The UK is where hedge funds and investment banks from all over the world go to do the most daring kinds of gambles. AIG was the biggest insurer in the world. Their small London office bankrupted the entire company. Why was that office in London instead of New York?

But my point is that any claim that the UK is leading the world in terms of a new type of knowledge driven, highly automated manufacturing model is completely delusional. It just doesn't exist outside of a few speeches David Cameron gave during the election campaign. Britain is not even on the map when it comes to technology.

I don't know if this is a big problem. Maybe the world can sustain a few bloated financial centres and will do so for a long time to come. But if it turns out that finance as a share of world GDP has peaked, then the UK is in a very dire situation, arguably the worst outside if Iceland.

I have a feeling the 2 ruling parties will work together until the first results of the cuts will come through before the next election, and then both will apportion blame/take credit in a vicious contest.

I think your point about the ruling parties is fine, except there's a bigger problem. We booted the Labour party out, but there's now no opposition. So when the two parties in power apportion blame, there's a very real risk that labour may come back in. If they do I would hope that they are able to put ideologies partly aside and work for the best interests of the country's future, but I'm not convinced they will.

Thanks for your comment though, I appreciate seeing another view of the world on a site like this, where intelligent people can engage in intelligent debate. Thanks for showing me your view of things - we may not agree but I respect your opinion.

I hope that the nature of the coalition makes them think through some better thought-out economic policies by virtue of having to work together. I have my fingers-crossed but I can understand that this could also end up terribly.

I also totally agree with your point about sharing a different point on things. Your reply certainly has got me thinking.

Which is exactly when a revolution is likely to happen.