Empire gone, still searching for an identity

The news of – effectively - the closure of the shipbuilding yards Portsmouth Dockyard was inevitable as the lack of an overarching industrial strategy that has characterised post-World War Two Britain claims another victim.  It used to be a treasonable offence - and therefore punishable by death – to set fire to one of his/her Majesty’s dockyards.  This was abolished in 1998 along with other treason charges as bringing about the death penalty on conviction but soon it would become irrelevant should Britain ever restore it (necessitating a leaving of the European Convention of Human Rights).

South Korea and other places around Europe have had a consistent industrial strategy over decades whereas Britain has contented itself with ever greater focus on the service sector, bringing higher average economic growth than the late Victorian era and the first half of the twentieth century but rather pathetic in comparison to other countries devastated by the Second World War.  Unions and management splurging profits on themselves rather than reinvestment played crucial parts but the politicians, even still, lack the guts and imagination to set out a comprehensive long-term strategy in conjunction with the main opposition.  An Ed Miliband government would be just as bad – make do and mend and shuffle through.  Britain likes to pride itself on the Whiggish version of history that the country acquired an empire by accident, but between 1700 and 1900 there was a very clear view of where the leaders wanted to take the United Kingdom – even the anti-imperialist prime minister William Gladstone sent troops to occupy Egypt.  This more-or-less single-mindedness has been lacking after the divestment of empire and has been the causal acceptance that not just Germany and France would overtake the UK but also the likes of Japan, Italy, China and soon India and Brazil (which the latter did briefly in 2009); it’s the natural order of things, except it never needed to be, at least so quickly.  While the UK is still 2% below its 2008 peak, Germany is 2% above their 2008 figures and being inside the EU doesn’t harm its ability to export to the like of China.

But to return to shipbuilding.  Wikipedia as of today still boasts that the construction of two new aircraft carriers has secured the base’s future for the next forty years and revitalised shipbuilding in Portsmouth.  This proves to be a mirage.  The Byzantine Empire suffered many shattering military defeats in its long history but a self-inflicted wound that it never recovered from was the closure of the shipbuilding docks in Constantinople (round about the same time Richard I was commissioning Portsmouth), losing all the talent that went with it and farming out their contracts for new ships to Venice (seeking vengeance after being humiliated by Constantinople).  This was a key reason why the Empire found the Fourth Crusade (carried in Venetian ships) irresistible and after that the Byzantines were in a death spiral.  When shipbuilding ceases at Portsmouth, within a generation that talent will be lost forever, irrespective that the times seem to dictate an emphasis on cyber-warfare than ships.

The shrinking of the Royal Navy led to the closure of Chatham Dockyards in 1984, though the riverine mud flats (so useful to defence prior to 1914) also contributed to relocating away when ships with deeper displacements became commonplace.  Now it is just a tourist attraction as Chatham Historic Dockyards – that will be the legacy for Portsmouth now (whose tourism board will increase its operations) as the service sector increases its stranglehold on the economy.