I just call it as I see it, but I hope things do turn around. It has to start with the people and eradicating apathy. And it's a hot issue with me because I see the same attitudes here in Canada and fear we may be headed for the same outcome (I don't want to say "fate" here).

There are examples on a number of different scales of successful British entities, such as Virgin, Dyson, Arcam, Linn and Naim to name a few. Yes, most average people wouldn't recognize the last three.

Perhaps the current state of affairs has more to do with what the government is already doing rather than what they're not doing. Seriously, the Canadian government's (federal and provincial) fingers are sticky enough, but things are, IMO, far overboard in the UK.

While I agree with tahir in so far as government needing to be involved in programs to stimulate industry, I don't believe that the issue has been one of marketing. Nor would the government be able to effectively alter any deficiencies in that department. There's a lot of positive moves/changes that can be made if governments (any) better prioritized and focused their spending and efforts. In the UK however, the most visible just happen to be the expenses associated with keeping the populace under 24 hour surveillance and taxed into submission. Take for instance the TV "license" that came up in another discussion. Asinine.