What We Have Lost: The Dismantling of Great Britain

by James Hamilton-Paterson

'Exquisitely written and ripe with detail' Sunday Times. 'An engaging book ... He knows his British stuff' The Times. 'One of England's most skilled and alluring prose writers in or out of fiction, has done something even more original' London Review of Books.

WHAT WE HAVE LOST IS A MISSILE AIMED AT THE BRITISH ESTABLISHMENT, A BLISTERING INDICTMENT OF POLITICIANS AND CIVIL SERVANTS, PLANNING AUTHORITIES AND FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS, WHO HAVE PRESIDED, SINCE 1945, OVER THE DECLINE OF BRITAIN'S INDUSTRIES AND REPLACED THE 'GREAT' IN BRITAIN WITH A FOR SALE SIGN HUNG AROUND THE NECK OF THE NATION.

Between 1939 and 1945, Britain produced around 125,000 aircraft, and enormous numbers of ships, motor vehicles, armaments and textiles. We developed radar, antibiotics, the jet engine and the computer. Less than seventy years later, the major industries that had made Britain a global industrial power, and employed millions of people, were dead. Had they really been doomed, and if so, by what? Can our politicians have been so inept? Was it down to the superior competition of wily foreigners? Or were our rulers culturally too hostile to science and industry?

James Hamilton-Paterson, in this evocation of the industrial world we have lost, analyzes the factors that turned us so quickly from a nation of active producers to one of passive consumers and financial middlemen.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction, History, British Literature

368 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 4, 2018

About the author

James Hamilton-Paterson is a British poet, novelist, and one of the most private literary figures of his generation. Educated at Exeter College, Oxford, he began his career as a journalist before emerging as a novelist with a distinctive lyrical style. He gained early recognition for Gerontius, a Whitbread Award-winning novel, and went on to write Ghosts of Manila and America’s Boy, incisive works reflecting his deep engagement with the Philippines. His interests range widely, from history and science to aviation, as seen in Seven-Tenths and Empire of the Clouds. He also received praise for his darkly comic Gerald Samper trilogy. Hamilton-Paterson divides his time between Austria, Italy, and the Philippines and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2023.

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

What We Have Lost – An Important debate

James Hamilton-Paterson takes us on a journey of remembrance about what we as a country used to do and how we managed to make a mess of it. Many refer back to the 1970s and the power of the trade unions, and it is easy to set the blame at them. They are one of a many architects of Britain’s downward slide from making things to saying things, politicians, business men and its usually men, along with the owners of the press, protecting their profits at the expense of the people who buy their papers.

When push came to shove between 1939 and 1945 this small island nation produced around 125,000 aircraft, massive amounts of shipping, military and merchant, motor vehicles of every description, armaments, and textiles. Yes, it was a war, yes we all came together, but still a small nation did that with some help admittedly. But we British made things that worked because we needed too.

This country also developed radar, antibiotics, the jet engine, the computer, the internet and even ahead of the USA on the development of television. Within seventy years the major industries we had which made Britain an industrial power, employed millions was dead. Some say it withered on the vine, allowed to die by politicians, and that is true to an extent. Poor leadership and lack of investment had many masters.

It has been argued that laisse-faire died out in the 19th century, but did it really? As the author states there has been a laisse-faire indolence that has become something of a national pastime which has carried over in our attitude to what we do. Laisse-faire attitudes have fired the British occupation of short-termism towards industry, investment and politics. So much so that our Government (of all shades) has an ingrained short termism that has ruined the state of this country and make us unable to face risk.

The author makes the sensible argument that deep in the British character is an underlying distaste for science and industry. Some of us dislike so much we are glad we do not do anything technical. So when Brexit came we are making very little and still dislike the idea of science and industry, but we bemoan we don’t make anything. One only has to look back to the 19th century and the industrial revolution, many saw these places of industry as just dirty, corrupt, money-grabbing heartless citadels of Mammon.

As Hamilton-Paterson quite rightly points out the myth building that the country undertook in the forms of poetry, literature. Think of the mythical English rose-girt cottage of hospitable inns that never went away. The benign view of the landowner as the genial country squire, we all know how much of that is a lie.

One of my favourite stories in this book is about the Mini, a British success I know, great design, great price, every inch a British success story. Pity it was making a loss. Ford bought a mini and stripped it down to understand the pricing of the car and took it down to the last nut and bolt. They found that the makers BMC, were losing a tidy £30 per car especially when the car in the showroom of £496 including tax. It was found that BMC were not very good at inventory costings, something which affected all their production. The managers had no idea how much the mini cost to build so charged £30 less than they were making it for. The incompetence of management.

The more you read this book the more you become angry. Angry at the management and unions who did themselves out of jobs. Angry at Politicians for selling us lie after lie. Even if one does have to take your hat off to Mrs Thatcher for selling us something we already owned with slick marketing and plenty of lies. It is not like energy or water has been a success, especially when you think of the Billions a few have taken out while the country slowly freezes to death.

We could go on about the lie Edward Heath made when signing Britain up for the EEC as it was and for not telling the people about a secret clause. That secret clause being fought over is fish, the British were not told that there was a secret clause which signed away British rights without our permission. Treachery not telling the British that we had no say who could come into British waters claiming rights that belonged to the British. Heath did this as a sweetener to get French support for British access to the EEC.

But as the current government is so much invested in Victorian values, it has brought back to the country, regular cases of tuberculosis, scarlet fever, measles, and rickets. At least they have brought Victorian poverty back, they are good at that.

An excellent book, but do not read if you suffer from high blood pressure!

[Malcolm Wardlaw · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is an informal and personal tour of the industrial decline of Britain, most especially since the end of the Second World War. This is a subject close to my heart. Being a (now middle-aged) engineer, I am old enough to remember Sheffield as an industrial town with real smoke stacks and the Midlands as still an industrial heartland. My own flat, built in 1985, has quaint door fittings and locks stamped "Made in England". My own career in design engineering started in GEC. Now the company I worked for is owned by Germans (having been owned by French on the meantime).
James H-P looks in particular at shipbuilding, motorcycle manufacturing, the car industry, the defence industry, and a few others. He identifies factors I would certainly agree with: lousy management, senior executives happy to live off mediocrity and outdated equipment rather than striving to lead the world, militant unions being largely a response to this. In addition, the indifference of a privileged caste of City executives and speculators lacking any social or direct financial interest in the fate of the nation's industries. Why should they? City financiers can make money anywhere they like. If the Midlands is a wasteland, why should they care? They have their own schools, hospitals, clubs, neighbourhoods, society... They don't have to have anything to do with the plebeianry, so they ignore it.
I felt, though, that the text was long-winded and lacking in conclusions apart from rather implausible ones along the lines that the British don't like business.

[Robert Cain · Rating 4 out of 5]

Released: 4th November 2018

Genre: Non-Fiction, Society

Number of Pages: 341

Many would agree that the UK is in a very dark place right now; political tribalism, botched plans and a considerable amount of anger and bitterness among the populous; James Hamilton-Paterson argues that the nation’s downward spiral really began decades earlier with the dismantling of Britain’s industries.
From 1945 to present Paterson charts an agonising inability to adapt and work out a way forward. Political ineptitude, an inability to compete and a refusal from society to move forward; these are just some of the causes presented in What We Have Lost. With one chapter per industry, the author typically brings together commentary from the time, his own viewpoint and broader occurrences in society. This includes car, motorbike and ship building as well as our engineering, fishing and nuclear sectors. Many of these either went bankrupt or were sold off to foreign investors.

With the many areas of manufacturing discussed, there’s a consistent theme that runs through Paterson’s reflections; a lack of collective planning for the country as a whole. He deftly weaves this idea throughout the chapters without pinning the blame on one political faction or individual over another. Instead he shows how collectively, the decisions of politicians and the direction the UK took after the Second World War slowly pulled it down from the dominance it once held. One sobering moment comes when Paterson describes a former RAF naval commander; having long been made redundant from his position, the man lives in the past, hoarding together past memorabilia and growing more reclusive since his wife passed away. Paterson uses this as an analogy for the UK itself to brilliant effect and packs every dissection with plenty of detail.

To tie everything together, the author writes a final reflection on where Great Britain is and it’s a very heart-wrenching anecdote. You can feel the disappointment from Paterson here as he believes that the country has refused to tackle its long-rooted problems. As a means of tying things together, the concluding chapter lands with great impact, doubly so for older readers who have witnessed the UK change through the decades. It speaks to a suitably bleak direction for the country.

Recommended?

YES: It doesn’t make for easy reading, but What We Have Lost is a very well-presented look at a nation’s decline from an author with many a lived experience. Paterson deftly explores each field of industry across the chapters, providing a clear and well supported reason for each, while also touching on the societal and political shifts that came about. The book’s only drawback is its somewhat eloquent, somewhat older-style manner of description which may not appeal to everyone.

[George Ruddick · Rating 4 out of 5]

yea were done for

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book in some ways to confront some of my prejudices, I tend to lean broadly to the left on most issues and in a nation seemingly presently grasping at flags and nostalgic whimsy of a right wing variety...well from this book I suspected maybe I would see the other side of the picture.
However this isnt really this sort of book as it doesn't apportion blame wholly on a political elite nor the loss of britishness through migration and globalisation, such things may be covered for instance it was interesting to read how the fishing quota thing was a genuine EU/weak parliment issue but the book really pointed out the EU wasnt the real problem.
successive weak government and the inability to support industry at times of times of struggle and crucially development of ideas was the real issue.
I say was...is...managers who know how to manage but dont have an affinity with their product so unable to grasp the development proffered by engineers being one reason.
the times Britain should have led but fell back or let someone else grab the ball are shown in their multitude.
various industries..shipbuilding...cars..motorbikes..fishing and weaponary are covered as is our selling out of them to embrace a service model.
the book doesnt end really on a optimistic note but how could it?..laissez faire government is still here a true visionary government but a pale promise.
a good read but pretty much one close to my own opinions afterall.

[Massimo Monteverdi · Rating 3 out of 5]

La tentazione di cominciare con “mal comune, mezzo gaudio” è forte, lo ammetto. Anni, anzi decenni, di denigrazioni e confronti impari sull’inaffidabilità complessiva dell’Italia seppelliti da un reportage impietoso sui fallimenti industriali del Paese che quella rivoluzione avviò con furore. Poi, più mestamente, ci si deve soffermare su un fenomeno (la delocalizzazione) che ha invertito l’ordine delle priorità nelle economie occidentali. Dunque, non è solo la Gran Bretagna ad aver perso tutti i suoi punti di riferimento nei settori nei quali era stata lungo leader. Peraltro, l’autore non cerca scuse o generalizzazioni, sostenendo con una rabbia a stento trattenuta che la ragione principale di tale crollo non sta nell’inevitabilità dei processi in un’economia globalizzata, ma nella radicata incapacità delle classi dirigenti di volta in volta al potere di trovare soluzioni alternative e potenti a un declino, secondo l’autore, tutt’altro che irreversibile. Un ritratto impietoso che non risparmia neppure il carattere nazionale, ritenuto troppo individualista e presuntuoso per considerare utile prodigarsi in sforzi intellettuali al fine di mantenere Grande la Bretagna.

[Leif · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought that this might have been a wobble. Surely, from the concept to the title, this exercise must be a deep dive into indulgent nostalgia! Surely it would be the kind of limp conservatism that leads to lazy thinking and meaningless observations.

Hell no. From the opening chapter, wherein Hamilton-Paterson "interviews" an elderly wartime aviator with a claim to fame, but whose fascination with the past has led to a consuming and blind amnesia, there is little indication of lazy thinking here. Instead, there are focused and highly technologically-focused chapters on manufacturing and industry. And they're great!

Now, I do have a few complaints, as H-P doesn't go into some of the big-picture reasons for these changes - things like post-industrial financialism and the effects of climate change seem pertinent but fail to emerge properly, and there's little attention to the effects of political decay in its more gritty details, but those are minor complaints to what is ultimately a strong, able showing. Very recommended for those interested in contemporary English history!

[Flob · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book which is somewhat masochistic for an Englishman to say - but I have seen this loss. The quote from the Motor Bike manufacturer that his customers like oily unreliable bikes they made because they liked having to tinker with them at the weekends is priceless, it sums up the blinkered, smug, self satisfied attitude of the British Establishment since 1945. The spiral of decay has been stunning and all the stranger set against a GDP that is 5th (about) in the world - who has got the loot? It certainly hasn't trickled up to the North of England. Many of the arguments have been influenced by Correlli Barnett but in a more condensed form. Cry my beloved country.

[Gareth Evans · Rating 3 out of 5]

This could be seen as an old man’s rant about the state of the country, it’s certainly polemical enough, but it’s a bit more subtle and generous than that. Hamilton-Paterson traces the decline of a number of British industries and touches on the state of British politics. It’s both interesting and entertaining, but it doesn’t really reach any firm conclusions. One area that’s not covered that perhaps is indicative of the rise and fall of British industry is the fate of the electronic industry. It follows the pattern of many of the declines that Hamilton-Paterson talks about, but over a shorter time period.

Overall, an interesting read, but lacks a punch.

[Ben Stone · Rating 3 out of 5]

A whimsical reflection of one man’s thoughts on ‘what’s wrong with the nation today’.

Some valid points but not a scientific study of objective data and swerves into ‘in my day’ whataboutery at times.

As a reader not well versed In some of the eras referred to, I enjoyed learning about some of the British brands and share some of the lament but ultimately this will be enjoyed by elder states people who think the world has gone to pot.

[Nick Harriss · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting in places, but somewhat of a "grumpy old man" diatribe. I learnt quite a bit about the demise of the British motorcycle industry, but otherwise I learnt little more. However, it does provide an insight to the thoughts of those who look back to what they see as sunnier times.

[Angelique Dunne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting points. All too sad to think that some of the damage could have been avoided with better planning!