High Peak Liberal Democrats

An optimist’s view of globalisation

After 25 years of globalisation it should be self-evident to all that rapid technical advances and global competition creates winners and losers in society. I'm very proud to belong to a party committed to speaking up for those who are not benefiting from this brave new world, but even more exciting is the chance we have to be the party which best articulates how Britain can compete and win.

There have been some excellent posts on Lib Dem Voice recently about how the Liberal values of an open multi-cultural society, devolution of power and being pro small enterprise are exactly those that help give the UK a competitive advantage. I would like to hear even more however about the practical things the country is already doing brilliantly in the fields of science, engineering and research & development and how our policies would help press down on the accelerator even faster.

For example:

• How the UK leads the world in developing satellite technologies which underpin the whole infrastructure of the global economy
• How our home grown nano-scale 'lab-on-a-chip' devices are simultaneously making huge saving for the NHS and earning billions in exports
• How a UK renaissance in hi-tech manufacturing is made possible by 3D printing technology being developed in UK universities.

Through Liberal Democrat actions in government, protecting science budgets and setting up the catapult centres which are now at the centre of UK industrial policy, I think the party proved that it 'gets' the role of the state in the new globalised world, and that's why I joined the party two years ago.

I hope that we push even further in this direction, supporting policy that seeks to move us from being one of the lowest state investors in science to one of the highest.

I also hope the party can help raise the level of debate generally on this topic. Too often it seems stuck in an attitude of 'Britain doesn't make anything anymore' which is out-dated and simply not reflective of modern Britain. Or otherwise there seems to be an assumption that capitalism means the state should not be involved at all, because governments cannot 'pick winners'. This is a common Conservative philosophy and shows a terrible lack of imagination on what modern industrial policy is about, enabling and incentivising investment, setting the regulatory framework and actively working to ensure all parts of the economy are serving the needs of the people. Those to me are great liberal values in action.

* Tobie is a software designer living in York and joined the party in 2013

Read more by Tobie Abel or more about engineering or science.

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