A letter to the Editor of the Daily Telegraph which was published on 3rd August, 2001.

David Litterick is right to suggest that manufacturing accounts for about 20 per cent of the cost of our GDP (report, Aug. 1st), but what he didn’t say was that industrial products account for about 75 per cent of our exports.  Moreover, a substantial proportion of the remaining 25 per cent – service exports – depend on industrial products or expertise derived from them.

It is remarkable that the opposition parties have allowed the Chancellor to acquire the reputation of a good steward of our affairs, while the trade deficit has risen remorselessly under his administration to the present awful £30 billion per annum.  There is a similar silence about the Government’s apparent acceptance or even encouragement of a drop in agricultural production.

Since we have to eat, every £1 billion drop in agricultural output adds straight on to the trade deficit.  For the most part, this can be put right only by the men and women in the already hard-pressed manufacturing industries.