Earlier quoted context omitted.
Supply chains are so diversified that self sufficiency is only feasible for countries the size of US and China. Russia has been forced to cannibalize jet planes because sanctions have starved it of spare parts. Even the US Navy gets its ships built in South Korea now. Britain's remaining industries are very niche. With a small domestic market, you can't get economies of scale. You have to specialize.
The UK is still the world's 5th largest economy. It's a large domestic market, just not a hyperscale one.
British Steel taken into public ownership to protect 'vital' UK supply
311–314 of 314 posts
Re: British Steel taken into public ownership to protect 'vital' UK supply
#312Earlier quoted context omitted.
Everyone in this discussion seems to be forgetting Trident as well. There's a lot of assumption the next war will be helpfully similar to WW2, and some sort of reverse sweet spot where we are subject to naval interdiction but will not deploy the strategic nuclear deterrent, and at the same time have enough time to build things, but not things that require any of the rest of the supply chain than steel (I have bad new…
Well if trident gets used then what comes next is irrelevant. It's like planning for your house burning down V dying. If you're dead you don't really need to worry about the after. So yes the military plans for everyone but global thermo nuclear war, because there's no point planning for that anyway. I wouldn't say were planning for the next ww2. Look at the number of tanks we have. If anything were over optimised fo…
Re: British Steel taken into public ownership to protect 'vital' UK supply
#313Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yep, same can be said of manufacturing capability in general. If you don't have a manufacturing base then inevitably when there's a war you may find yourself unable to build defense components.
Thats what comrades tried many times in history, allways with deadly costs.
Re: British Steel taken into public ownership to protect 'vital' UK supply
#314Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thats what comrades tried many times in history, allways with deadly costs.
I'd say you have to have a really solid/creative (ingenious?) plan beyond "just nationalise it and she'll be right" - otherwise yeah it'll just be heavy and a drain on the economy.