Work not wishes

Congratulations to Alf Young on his article “Manufacturing a robust economy” (Perspective, 17 March). It is a serious problem as to how we can reverse 30 or 40 years of decline.

Perhaps we need to examine the process by which we became post-industrial. There were certainly factors such as lack of capital investment and high production costs, due to inefficiency and poor process management.

However, as living standards improved and the value of the economy and the pound increased, it became cheaper just to make goods abroad. Maybe the country needs to become leaner and accept lower living standards again to become more competitive. There are undoubtedly some macro-economic factors at work here.

It was depressing to read the feature in the same edition about the work on the second Forth road bridge. Pictures of the caissons and the bridge deck being fabricated in Poland and China beg the question why this isn’t being done here as this is straightforward steel fabrication.

In a free market, it is difficult to hold on to manufacturing jobs, and what remains of our manufacturing base is largely foreign-owned. You need to be very professional and creative, and the costs need to be controlled in order to be competitive. I don’t think the government can simply wish it would happen; the structural changes will take many years, and could be painful.

Hugh Walker

Rose Street

Dunfermline, Fife