Is Mrs May’s industrial strategy just another misguided missile?

The Prime Minister’s heralded ‘industrial strategy’ was robbed of headlines by the story of the misguided Trident missile. But it was perhaps as well that the 132-page green paper — with its ‘ten pillars’ of platitude about ‘delivering affordable energy and clean growth’, ‘improving procurement’ and all the rest — garnered so little attention, because even the business voices who were waiting to welcome it were quick to spot it as no more than a wordy discussion draft, bereft of substantive ideas.

Nevertheless, as Mrs May says, to have an industrial strategy at all represents ‘a new approach to government, not just stepping back and leaving business to get on with the job, but stepping up to a new, active role…’ This column certainly agrees with the objective of making the UK ‘one of the most competitive places in the world to start or to grow a business’, for example. But how? What the Guardian calls ‘turbo-libertarians’ will respond that tax breaks and deregulation are the only surefire way to nurture and keep a critical mass of competitive industries, especially in the post-Brexit mêlée.