Opposition politicians and representatives of British industry this
week pressed the government to publish a highly critical internal report.
According to The Sunday Times, which acquired a copy of the report, it says
that British industry is 鈥榝undamentally weak, beset by inferior management
and products, and suffering from inadequate investment in new technology鈥�.
Robin Cook, the Labour Party鈥檚 spokesman on trade and industry, has
made a formal request for the report to be published. However, a spokeswoman
for the Department of Trade and Industry, whose Competitiveness Unit drafted
the report, says: 鈥業t鈥檚 not normal to publish ministerial advice.鈥� She has,
however, confirmed that the newspaper鈥檚 account of the report is accurate.
Derek Fatchett, Cook鈥檚 deputy, says: 鈥榃e want to press for publication.
My view is that it would not be damaging for the country to know the truth.
We need to know the extent of the problems facing industry.鈥� Fiona Steele,
the head of the technology unit at the Confederation of British Industry,
says the government鈥檚 realisation that manufacturing is in trouble has
come rather late. 鈥榃e are good in some areas, but pretty awful in others,鈥�
she says.
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The report says: 鈥楾he hole in the heart of British manufacturing is
due to managers who, compared with their overseas counterparts, are poorly
educated, ill-trained and failing to turn technology into products that
will win out in world markets.鈥� Further, it says, managers have taken a
damaging short-term approach which neglects innovation.
Michael Heseltine, the President of the Board of Trade, told a private
audience of scientists, technologists and industrialists in February that
innovation in science and technology is one of the key influences on the
country鈥檚 competitiveness. 鈥業nnovation is the process linking R&D with
industrial competition,鈥� he said.鈥�
Heseltine, who set up the competitiveness unit and commissioned the
leaked report last autumn, said in a radio interview that the report was
too dangerous to publish. He claimed that competitors would exploit the
weaknesses it exposes.
Bob Whelan, the chief executive of the Centre for Exploitation of Science
and Technology, a think-tank funded by government and industry, says that
the report 鈥榦verturns a great deal of political dogma we鈥檝e been subjected
to over the past 10 years鈥�. He was referring to repeated ministerial assurances
that manufacturing industry is in good shape. 鈥業 think it should be made
available as soon as possible,鈥� says Whelan, 鈥榮o we can have informed debate
about what to do.鈥�