The German-built Spitfire

By Jason Moore I was struck by the scale of Britain´s industrial decline in a most unusual place, the window of a Palma model aircraft shop. On view was a beautifully crafted replica of that great British icon, the Supermarine Spitfire; the aircraft which won the Battle of Britain and to this day is considered to be one of Britain´s greatest manufacturing successes. Now, for many years I´ve had an interest in aircraft so I took a closer look at the model aircraft and it brought back memories of hours of fun. On closer examination of the box I discovered that this beautiful model of Britain´s greatest fighter aircraft was made in Germany. Rather ironic! I just thought to myself it is has been many years since Britain produced an aircraft on its own and these days it can´t even produce a model of one of its most famous planes. A sad state of affairs which also has an important lesson. While Germany and France have started to pull clear of recession Britain is still in serious financial trouble. The answer is that Germany and France still have a manufacturing base and as consumer demand increased the output of their factories went up also. Britain has let its manufacturing industry disappear and has moved into financial services.