What happened to all the industry?

“Why’s there no industry in Britain?”

“Oh, that’s quite simple, really. You see, Britain is a funny little island kingdom owned by a queen and her feudal barons – you know, Sir This, Lord That.

When industrialisation came along, the barons had it made for a while, until workers began organising into unions.

After Britain’s barons had fallen out with foreign barons and killed millions of people fighting over wealth, they then fucked up the peace and went to war again.

The industry was all knackered after that, so the government propped it all up with tax money to keep it going while paying crippling war debt to the Americans.

The unions were pretty stroppy around then, and took on the system with industrial action. This worried the Queen, her barons and successive governments a bit, until the Iron Lady came along with some friends who worked out how to get rid of the unions.

Easy really. You get rid of industry – become post-industrial. No unions. No threat to the system. Happy barons. Happy Queen. Happy kingdom. Happy island.”

“Wow. So where’s the industry?”

“Anywhere they can keep the workers down. The barons don’t care. Not their problem anymore. They just invest in mineral extraction in poor nations and property in London. Much nicer.”

“Cool.”

“Kind of.”