IT IS a wonderful thing to hear so much talk of industrial strategy. Over the last 20 years even in the labour movement only a few on the fringes of the party were bold enough to push for a strategy beyond that of the free market.

For the last 40 years those in positions of power have been sold on the private sector. They have dismantled our public services, sold off and ignored important work bases and even encouraged deliberate managed decline of mass industries.

For decades the Tories argued the best way to secure economic success was to leave the market to its own devices.