“The fantasy that Britain can just be an ‘idea factory’” was the room’s central objection, and No won decisively. The vote was less a rejection of knowledge-intensive industries than of the word “away”: the dominant argument was that innovation and manufacturing should reinforce each other, not compete for the nation’s future.
The floor’s most-respected No case warned that abandoning production had “gutted our regional heartlands for 40 years”, while another concise voice said, “We need both working in tandem.” Across the winning side’s arguments, the emphasis was on resilience, practical skills and the ability to turn research into goods rather than leave that value to overseas producers.
The Yes side was scarcely represented, but its strongest argument had the highest respect of any opinion on the page. It blamed “market friction” — planning, building, energy and tax costs — for sending ideas abroad, while another Yes voter asked, “Why be Canute and try to hold back the tide?” That case treated the shift as an economic reality; the No side treated the wording as a choice to be resisted.
The wider argument is familiar from the current industrial-strategy debate: productivity and frontier technology matter, but so do supply chains, energy security and regional employment. As one No voter put it, “Creative thought and services… leaves us exposed and dependent on other nations”; the platform’s answer was to add manufacturing to the knowledge economy, not subtract it.
The room did not vote against ideas; it voted against an economy that cannot build what it invents.
22 Opinions
A better question is why are ideas commercialised overseas, rather than develop them further in the UK? And the reason is market friction. We have very high planning costs, high regulatory compliance costs, high building costs, high energy costs, oh, and high payroll and corporation taxes too. Investors weigh the opportunity cost of investing in the UK and wisely decide not to. Governments set the market conditions, and industry responds rationally.
The fantasy that Britain can just be an 'idea factory' while abandoning manufacturing is what gutted our regional heartlands for 40 years. An economy that makes nothing is fragile and traps wealth in London. Plus, if we don't build what we invent, foreign rivals will commercialise our research and leave us reliant on imports. A serious country has to actually make things.
No, to be independent state we need both. Being self-sufficient is the key to success. Obviously we should expand services and knowledge-intensive sectors where possible but you never place all your eggs into one basket. In this case, diversity is a positive factor.
Creative thought and services, without the partner ability to build and deliver, leaves us exposed and dependent on other nations like China and India.
You can't put "Made in Britain" on a thought. Opinions, ideas, learning, thoughts, the opportunities are everywhere and endless. Manufacturing is specialised, requires more than an extremely brilliant mind, it needs skills with a variety of things. We can't just turn out amazing philosophers, we need people with practical skills, to teach those skills to others. Otherwise we'll be importing every item we require from abroad.
NO Part of Britain's problem today is we don't make anything any more & are therfore held ransom by other countries that do. We need to be build our industrial power not getting rid of it. In the old days britsh factories had two rolls, a peacetime one & a wartime one. Without our own factories we can't make stuff our forces need on times of conflict!
We need both working in tandem
We should invest in the knowledge economy but I voted no due to the emphasis on ‘shift away.’ We should be seeking to continue to manufacture, especially high value, highly technically advanced and developmental products.
We should strengthen manufacturing again while continuing to grow our knowledge economy, we need both.
Support our farmers and develop manufacturing. We need to be able to produce as much of what we need from cars to solar panels in this country .