Britain is the birthplace of the television, the computer, the jet engine and the monoclonal antibody. Today, younger economies are taking decades to learn things that took us centuries to discover. These countries are embracing science and technology with relish, and making them a national priority. In the global economy, change is speeding up and product lives are shortening. Scientific discoveries in the laboratory move more quickly to the market.
Skills become obsolete more rapidly.
We must not allow our maturity and richness of tradition to limit our vision, our capacity to learn, or our readiness to respond to new challenges. Rather, we must respond by mobilising our country's considerable assets, of which the scientific community is one of the most important. The researcher, developer and their backers often find it more difficult than their competitors to secure sufficient rewards. That is why the protection of intellectual property rights is important. In a global economy we need to do far more through the World Trade Organisation and the European Union to secure protection in all market places.