British industry is now in terminal decline, killed by expensive energy
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/10/26/british-manufacturing-decline-energy-acceleration/
Posted by OGSyedIsEverywhere
British industry is now in terminal decline, killed by expensive energy
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/10/26/british-manufacturing-decline-energy-acceleration/
Posted by OGSyedIsEverywhere
27 Comments
Pretty sure it was killed by the tories 40-50 years ago when they decided we didn’t need it
I love how the one graph they have shows a leveling off of the “terminal decline”.
Also picking the referendum year. Did they do that by mistake as it really shows how the UK car industry has been hit by brexit.
And Brexit. When the British voted to put tariffs on themselves because they didn’t like people speaking Polish on the train.
Thatcher killed British industry many decades ago, it takes more than 18 months to create the current structural issues. Attempting to pin it all on net zero is a gross simplification.
At least we’re winning the net zero race though guys? Right?
Large amount of industry doing industry things where I am.
I wonder who sold off the utility companies to profiteers?
The Telegraph’s solution is, of course, not to ramp up domestic generation from renewables whose costs (particularly solar) have plummeted in recent years, but to keep us tied to increasingly expensive and volatile fossil fuel markets dominated by the Middle East, US and Russia.
I love how doom and gloom and defeatist the Torygraph is these days… Where’s the enthusiasm gone? We’re out the EU! Uplands! Sun!
This could just be shorthand to “Brittan in terminal decline killed by expensive”.
EVERYTHING is unaffordable expensive with excessive profits extracted at every step of every process by an ever smaller group of ever richer (usually haven owned near-monopolies) companies, landowners and executives.
UK industry has been declining since the end of 19th century
This is bullshit. The industry was mostly lost to China. Just ask Russia, with energy cheaper than China who also lost their industry to China.
SHOCK
the telegraph has been staunchly anti green
Between April – October 2023 171 opinion pieces were classified as anti green
They constantly push ‘energy security’ dog whistle for Oil and are sceptical of any renewable developments
Once AI and robotics reach the pick(give 5 to 10 years), then the advantage boils down to the fundamentals like energy and rare earth materials etc.
Whoever can produce the energy cheaper and has higher-grade earth materials will take over the market. It doesn’t happen overnight, but these are the ones who will win the markets.
Encouraging investments in the energy sector and making it easier for research companies is very important while securing the offshore mining contracts.
What people should actually be talking about, but instead it’s adverts, bathrooms, etc lmao
The tory legacy.
1) Destroyed secure housing for the working class.
2) Destroyed the British industrial base.
3) Sold off vital public services.
4) Squandered North Sea oil revenue to pay the welfare bills as a result of 2.
5) Deregulation of Banks and financial services leading to 2008 crash.
6) Brexit.
Pretty sure I’ve missed a lot out but that’s significant damage on its own.
rum that this is from the bloody telegraph !
britain has systematically cut itself off from cheap energy over the last 50 years, in full knowledge that the North Sea domestic supplies were tapering after its peak in the 1990s.
Lap dogging for the US endless wars, eschewing the diplomacy required to keep a global service economy supply has left them now paying far higher rates and buying from …..the US. Germany is not much different.
the same newspaper of course cheerleads britain into these conflicts with great gusto, shouting down those who call for diplomacy.
the lack of of competence, skill and abscence of proper, longer term strategy has accelerated Europes decline exponentially, in the face of a tranformed asia. it’s really sad..
You only have to see Ed Milliband here are realise how hopeless Labour is [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9kM5rLGeEY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9kM5rLGeEY)
British Industry has been on decline since the 60s onwards….railways scrapped, British car manufacturing gone, steel gone, coal industry gone…and this was all before I was born in the late 80s….shit has always been shit.
OMG, I haven’t read anything from the Torygraph in a while and now I remember why. This is a total piece of trash. Talks about the decline of industry in Britain without once mentioning the Brexit elephant in the room or the high costs of inflation, the tax burden, etc. It must all be down to energy costs.
And, of course, don’t mention the many things which contribute to these high energy costs. Lack of long term re-investment of energy profits into energy infrastructure, for example. Privatisation having lead companies to sell of and close down our gas reserves which could have protected us against the rising cost of gas due to the Ukraine war, for example. Absolutely no evidence is provided as to the relative impact of net-zero next to any other factors, just a statement that this costs money, no mention of how much money and that somehow removing this would make things better. It sounds like more of the Brexit argument to me — if we can generate electricity with a solar panel or wind turbine of course that’s going to be useful when compared to drilling a hole far down into the earth, smashing up rocks with high pressure water and trying to suck out the gas you release before it escapes.
But of course this is right wing politics at its finest and what should we expect? A small number of very rich people want to get richer and if they can frack or drill oil they can do that. It’s heavy industry so a bunch of farmers with fields can’t play, the super wealthy have the market all to themselves. They don’t care that it will destroy the planet for all of our grandchildren — theirs will be in the super rich minority who can just cope with the resulting damage and be OK. Then wrap it up in a vacuous, populist sounding message and try to whip up some anger from the public who have more immediate things to worry about like working and paying bills. If they’re lucky and we aren’t paying attention they get our vote and we help them get richer at our expense while nobody even notices.
We have been doing this for decades and that’s how we are where we are. Not because of net zero.
….and the reason we have expensive energy is?
…because the UK government sold out to the French and let them farm us to make massive profits that they can then subsidise their customers back in France.
That’s it in a nutshell.
Yes, energy cost is high but there are things industry can do, for example, i work for a manufacturer, we used to have gas and electricity, but we have now covered our entire roof with solar panel, since then we no longer have gas, and electricity cost far lower then what it was. I am pretty sure we didn’t even pay or pay very little for solar panel but that any excess export was given back to the company installed it.
circular problems with older generations, too.
– we have no industries left like the old days
– we don’t want renewables because they sound silly
– industries can’t afford energy bills
Nukes. The Answer is Nukes, the Answer has always been Nukes, and Answer will always be Nukes. Build more Nukes!
And by Nukes I mean the reactors, not the Bombs. And if I hear anything about how long it takes to get them up and running, I will slap you.
Been saying this for a while energy, a drop in energy costs would allow businesses to invest. If you are a heavy power user (I work on manufacturing) the costs are crippling.
“No more gimmicks. The character of politics will change and through that, we will deliver higher growth, safer streets, an NHS back on its feet, more opportunity in your community, cheaper bills in your home, and secure borders for our nation.” – Starmer
British Steel is the best example here. Jingye purchased it in early 2020 – learned the valuable IP, the methods and manufacturing processes. Then took it back to china and brink of insolvency. That was Boris btw. Now we are the only major economy that cannot produce its own quality ‘virgin’ steel.