Brown: Globalisation a ‘race to the top’
Britain will only meet the challenge of globalisation by investing in a skilled and well-educated workforce, Gordon Brown said today.
In his address to the TUC conference, the chancellor warned that while Britain was beginning to move towards the labour movement’s ideal of full employment, an even greater challenge lay ahead.
Asia’s manufacturing output is now greater than that of Europe, while China and India are now turning more computer scientist and engineering graduates than the whole of Europe and the US combined.
But the answer does not lie in protectionism, in hoping Asia will go away, but in “radically upgrading our skills, science and technology”, Mr Brown told delegates. The global challenge was not a race to the bottom but a race to become high-skilled, high-technology economies.
“We will answer the Asia challenge, not by becoming resigned to a Britain of low skills and high unemployment, but by creating a Britain of new skills and new jobs,” he said.
Mr Brown issued an invitation to trade unions and business to enter a debate with the Treasury on how a “more skilled, more adaptable and more enterprising Britain” can be developed to ensure it succeeds in the global economy.
Britain’s education system must empower young people to realise their potential; the welfare state must ensure adults can move from low skills to high skills; and its science infrastructure must ensure Britain can lead the world, he said.
In addition, European economic reform was required to open up markets for British firms, he said, stressing the government’s commitment to manufacturing.
But in what was a parting shot at increased militancy of the unions in recent years, the chancellor called for “stability in industrial relations” to ensure Britain continues to prosper.
“Just as we need stability in inflation and interest rates, we need stability in our industry policy, stability in industrial relations, and stability in our trading relationships with the rest of the world,” Mr Brown said.
“And we build this stability for a purpose: for it is the one sure route to full employment for our generation and to prosperity for all.”
