"Britain had an excellent manufacturing and engineering industry - it was sacrificed because it was cheaper to buy inferior goods and materials abroad, leaving us with nothing to sell and reliant on foreign imports,"

Exactly, and we didn't particularly care about the terrible conditions of the workers who were providing those cheap goods so that Maggie and that bloody idiot Lawson could unleash the City spivs and pave the way to yuppiedom (sadly, his daughter's recipes are bloody superb).