How Britain can build a successful, lasting industrial strategy

The UK has had three grand plans in 10 years. It's time to get everyone to agree on the targets and stick to them

For many years, the idea that a government of the right should have an industrial policy was heresy. The state's role was to keep inflation and taxes low, then stay out of the way so that market forces could operate. Ronald Reagan summed up the philosophy when he said the nine most dangerous words in politics were: "I'm from the government and I'm here to help."

The idea that Reagan pursued a form of pure laissez-faire is, of course, nonsense. Plenty of US firms reaped the benefits of vastly increased defence spending in the 1980s, a form of military Keynesianism, that had plenty of technological spin-offs.

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