What a load of bollocks, they've always been able to sell. Our manufacturing sector isn't about selling cheap tat (no-one can beat China at that, tariffs or no), it's focused on high tech and engineering, where it's not just a race to the bottom in terms of cost. What we've currently got is a temporary boost to sales from buyers who are making deals whilst they can get bargains because the pound is low. This will partly be reversed when the costs of imported materials starts to be factored in again (most firms hedge their currency deals and material supplies for 3-6 months, so it will be a delayed effect), and prices have to rise to compensate. We might even find sales drying up at that point, as foreign buyers will have stocked up whilst the prices were low.
UK manufacturing being able to pay their UK workers less (not in pounds, but compared to their overseas costs) than before will help their profit margins of course, but that's a short term effect too. When those UK workers see that everything they buy which comes from abroad is costing more they will demand pay rises. So this only really becomes a permanent improvement to the manufacturers if the working class takes the hit of not getting the pay rises they need to compensate for the falling pound's impact on their cost of living.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
