"the rich people of England were allowed to sit on their money and invest it abroad"
Yes, and why not? Money is invested to make money-not lose it. Only a fool invests in a losing enterprise, and fools generally are not rich.
Can you see the connection Big Al?
Do you wish government to take even more control of your life and dictate how to spend your money?
Why do you think manufacturing in heavy industries has packed it's bags and gone? It is because other countries can do it better and cheaper.
Economics is a very unforgiving discipline and really does not give a hoot if your pit village only offers   unemployment as a nearby job opportunity. Do you think it is only the UK has these problems. Why do you think third world countries have huge shanty towns, Could it be that with exploding populations subsistence farming, along with a host of other reasons, no longer hacks it? Ever since Ironbridge gave birth to the industrial revolution successive generations of the working population have been subjected to change. This is an inescapable fact of life. To demonise one person at a particular moment in time as being the prime instigator of these changes is patently absurd.