Hacker News Reader

Comment by pjc50 | Hacker News Reader

The point is that manufacturing is a relatively small part of both the economy and the job market; AND the popular view of manufacturing (large plant staffed by a large number of men being the dominant employer of a nearby town or city) doesn't look anything like the reality of modern manufacturing (small run boutique high value stuff like satellites and turbines, highly automated and professionalized, relatively small number of employees).

This leads to stupid decisions like gutting the university sector, which is a major export industry.

View on HN

>The point is that manufacturing is a relatively small part of both the economy and the job market

Yes because the UK is overfinancialised to a ridiculous degree. It has deindustralised in doing so.

>This leads to stupid decisions like gutting the university sector, which is a major export industry.

I'd call it more of a major import industry. At the same time your doctors and such are leaving the country.

Besides, if these are so profitable why are they making the cuts you think? Is it that those degrees aren't exactly paying off in an economy that can't consist of HR departments and other PMC's?

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2026/jul/14/university...

Thousands of university job cuts in humanities and social sciences are creating widespread cold spots for languages, classics and theology degrees, the British Academy has warned.

[...]

The subjects with the biggest staff cuts were social work (-9%), English and classics (both -8%), anthropology (-7%) and linguistics (-6%).

https://www.centreforcities.org/reader/town-and-gown/univers...

"Universities brought in an estimated £24 billion to the UK economy from abroad in 2022. They provide services (education) to international students who bring money to the institutions from abroad through international fees. These students also bring money to the local economy by spending on goods and services while they are studying"

(presumably there's an attempt to imply that those are bad courses in some way, but you haven't shown your working)

How many destroyer keels has U. Essex laid down this decade?

None? That's not really its job?

whoosh

You'll find Colchester lads undeniably tasty around closing time on a Saturday.

It's not boutique vs large plant. It's base materials (paper mills, steel smelters, plastic etc) that tend to be low in added value, versus higher up the stack (like your examples) that also tend to be higher in added value.

Most countries didn't care much for the former other than historic reasons, but like the latter for obvious reasons (add £ to GDP).

That's changing due to "sovereignty". You can't build a satellite without metal profiles, wiring, tubes etc. Which requires manufacturing capacity for those. Which requires steel/alu/copper smelters & plastic extruders. Which requires plastic & thus a chemical industry.

This whole 'sovereign movement' is about keeping/bringing back capabilities across the stack which are deemed critical (like steel).

But I suspect there are few (if any) countries that have these dependency chains mapped out in detail.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com