Land of Hope and Enterprise

This chapter examines the contribution of recognized activities that make the UK economy, such as the progress in research, pharmaceuticals, technology, software, and innovation that can be traced back to the intellectual powerhouses of UK's institutions of higher learning. It recounts the UK's love–hate relationship with the City of London, wherein the banks are still blamed for the financial crisis of 2007–2009 and the subsequent stagnation and fall in incomes. It also cites finance as the highest UK earner of overseas income and is a magnet for international institutions. The chapter describes London as the biggest financial centre outside New York and has attracted even greater numbers of skilled financial traders since the EU referendum result of 2016. It explains how the UK financial sector accommodated trading, provided credit, and raised new capital for troubled firms and those seeking post-Covid-19 opportunities.

Infrastructure

This chapter looks at the priority projects, the climate change agenda, and the low interest rate environment that constitute a big step forward for UK. It illustrates the UK as a country where Conservative and Labour parties after a decade of austerity agree that the UK needs to invest for the future. It also discusses the priorities of digital transformation and a lower carbon Britain outside the EU that look even more desirable after the Covid-19 experience. The chapter highlights Britain as the master of capital investment in the Victorian era as much of the infrastructure for creating the railways, the Clifton Suspension Bridge and the Bazalgette sewage system in London was designed and built in that period. It points out how long-term investment for the greater public good is not something that the UK has excelled at in more modern times.

Heritage

This chapter emphasizes the profound impact that Brexit has had on British and global trade and production associated with the coronavirus pandemic. It examines how it has become fashionable to deprecate Englishness and the admittedly nebulous concept of Global Britain as the UK embarks on a post-Brexit renewal. It also describes the UK's rich heritage at home and overseas as something to be admired and developed, and should not be dismissed as a vacuous slogan. The chapter explores the little recognition given to the part that immigration has played in the advancement of the UK economy. It points out the latest long-term projections from City forecasters CEBR, which cite migration as one of the reasons why the UK economy will outpace that of France and other EU members in the 2020s.

Onwards and Upwards

This chapter recounts how Britain voted to leave the EU in June 2016, in which very few people envisaged the long timescale involved in navigating its departure. It cites the paralysis of national decision-making and the scale and the passion on both sides that were not anticipated during the battle to reverse the result of the referendum. It also talks about the December 2019 election that brought Boris Johnson back to Downing Street, which should have allowed a line to be drawn under uncertainty and signalled the start of a healing process. The chapter analyses the Brexit disarray on all sides of the political and economic divide that became less relevant as a second referendum had been blocked. It highlights interventions of the UK government to put the economy on hold or in hibernation, so that when the pandemic has passed the economy can be brought back to life.

Brave New World

This chapter mentions Aldous Huxley, who wrote the Brave New World after the upheaval of the First World War and before the terrors of the Second World War. It highlights Huxley's contemplation of revolutionary change that captured what he sensed as deep-seated changes in the national feeling, along with the questioning of long-held social and moral assumptions. It also discusses the economic shockwave delivered by the coronavirus, which caused an unprecedented loss of output from the month before lockdown to April 2020 when most of the economy was shut and threatened the highest level of unemployment in a century. The chapter explores the EU and the seventeen members of the eurozone that were considered not in the best of shape long before the coronavirus added to the dislocation. It talks about the membership of the euro that had delivered economic chaos, hardship and political turmoil in Greece.

Creative Genius

This chapter focuses on the creativity in the UK, which manifests itself from the street music of Tottenham to the glamour of the Oscars and the James Bond movies. It focuses on the glittering successes of UK creativity as symbols of a much broader creative and inventive culture that make a muscular contribution to the UK's GDP, defy the usual rules of trading relations, and offer great hope for a rebooted UK. It also recounts how creativity in the shape of live performances and museum exhibitions was crushed by Covid-19, lockdown, and social distancing. The chapter highlights resilience as the glory of UK creativity, citing actor Bertie Carvel who took the initiative and organised a lockdown theatrical festival broadcast on Radio 3 in the summer of 2020. It looks at gaming, with its embrace of artifical intelligence, as a potent symbol of largely unseen achievements, such as the Google-owned machine 'AlphaGo.'

White Hot Technology

This chapter focuses on the UK as a well-placed tech hub with a cutting edge that is made sure it's not blunted as the UK takes a new path outside the EU and seeks to recover from the trauma of the Covid pandemic. It cites the driverless car that was tested for the first time on Britain's streets, which is considered an enormous advance on previous UK trials that involved a driver manually operating the vehicle. It also discusses the Milton Keynes exercise that showed the government's determination to make the UK a world leader by being at the forefront of developing driverless technology. The chapter talks about the UK's Jaguar Land Rover group, which took up the driverless challenge posed by Google's Waymo and China's Baidu company. It explores the automotive industry's thrust towards a new generation of vehicles that has advanced technology in developing hybrid, dual fuel and electric cars.