Chancellor of the Exchequer John Healey has said new floating drydocks for the Clyde submarine base will be foundation stones in the “reindustrialisation of Britain”.

Well. Forgive me if I am underwhelmed.

Floating drydocks are an old technology dating back more than a century and pioneered by the US Navy. They require large amounts of steel, so the programme may provide something of a lifeline to Britain's struggling steel industry. We must hope it does. But I struggle to see in it the outline of a great new industrial strategy, especially when compared with what is now being planned across the European Union.

In the wake of the end of the Cold War, decades of well-ordered global free trade and frequent enlargement of the EU itself, Europe’s strategic industries enjoyed boom years. A degree of institutional and boardroom complacency crept in.

Meanwhile, China was growing into the world's manufacturing powerhouse. It has taken China's drive to dominate global car markets, Donald Trump's tariff wars and Vladimir Putin's threat to Eastern Europe to shock Europeans into action. Only time will tell whether the EU's strategy succeeds. The start has been impressive.

The umbrella title for the EU's determination to become more industrially competitive worldwide is "Made in Europe". The argument is that Europe has too few companies with the size, technologies and ambition to compete against American and Chinese giants.

Read more Martin Roche

I fear Labour’s plans for 'Greater Glasgow' amount to little........

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