is not alone in this issue. Surely we can learn from the experience of other countries? What is the situation in other EU countries, in SE Asia etc? bigfacedog - you are breath of fresh air. We need to remove the culture of welfare dependency and the nanny state. We need to lit businesses and entrepreneurs decide on their own futures, who to employ and what investment decisions to make. Before someone says "But they weren't competitive, blah blah"......Well in that case you improve not destroy. Germany and Japan managed to resurrect their industry after they were flattened by carpet bombing, it shouldn't be beyond the wit of man to fix so Different times, different circumstances ! I may also add different people ! The north, Wales, Scotland are places completely under the thumb of middle class Leftism. The working class have been driven into the gutter while the State has grown ever bigger. The alice in wonderland strategies and initiatives led by well paid Leftists have gotten nowhere. London is a bit different mainly because the mass migration created by the Left has also created a source of external energy that one does not find amongst the downtrodden English working class. Not that of course mass migration is the answer. The answer lay in the Left controlled schools and bureaucracies which direct the northern lumpen proletariat into dead ends. Remove the Leftists from mind warping positions with their emphasis on welfare dependency, self pity and imagined rights and reinstall