Great article but...

Good piece, very interesting, but of course you miss the key point to square the circle, or hexagon the triangle, or whatever. While your points are all correct, it's not value that votes, it's people, and so the politicians break it down to 'there are fewer people employed by manufacturing' = 'there's less manufacturing in the UK'.

A desirable solution for them would involve every single man woman and child making grommits, or, conceivably, spending a huge premium on buying overpriced armaments from BAE - essentially paying to keep voters in work. Which joins up nicely with Lewis's work...