Thought This Article Might Be Of Interest To Some.

I have no comment about the content of the article, but before any flaming starts I will vouch for the author of the piece.

Fareed Zakaria is a remarkable journalist. He says what he thinks despite the leanings of his employers and is always insightful and honest. He is a rare breed. He has a show on CNN here, and quite frankly, I am surprised he has not been publicly executed yet for his lack of bias toward anything that would make him popular.

I think we're descending into our rightful place on the world stage as a country - we're not the superpower that we once were. I think we'll always wield influence on the world stage but not from the kind of position that we used to back in the days of colonialism or even post-war.

If you look at countries in terms of military might, the article suggests we're decreasing ours quite rapidly from its already fairly small number whereas countries like China are increasing theirs at an exponential rate - I think I read that they have a standing army of just under 3m (although they lack the capacity to actually transport more than about 150,000 out of the country). Economically we're still fairly high up the list in terms of GDP but there are some really dynamic economies developing with countries like Brazil and India experiencing massive economic growth over the last few decades, so I think we'll be overtaken by them at some stage in the near future. We're now essentially a service economy because we have no real manufacturing base anymore so we'll be fairly stagnant unless we experience some kind of boom which is unlikely. Even culturally we're not really a big influence anymore as everything seems to be very Americanised now (which I guess in a way is a culture based on ours so maybe we still have a little influence there!).

So basically, we're not as special as we once were. But f*ck it, we still have the best football league in the world!

So basically, we're not as special as we once were. But f*ck it, we still have the best football league in the world!

Agree with the first part, disagree with the second.

Do you have to have a big army to be a voice in this world? For some time now we have not been a "global power" in terms of firepower. Britain still holds a place in the world as a mover and shaker because of trade. It is the economy which makes the world go round not the number of missiles you have that you will never use. I am no fan of the current PM but no doubt he will make speeches on global issues in the future as he has in the past. I think most people are more worried about the state of the hospitals in this country than they are about armed forces. Should the need arise there are ways to boost the number of fighting men. Seriously, does anyone think that there is a threat of invasion? The threats we have now are terrorists who move in the shadows and who you cant fight with nuclear warheads or armies.

I'm glad we are stopping this obsession with being some sort of global power, we need to sort our own sh!t out without worrying about countries that have nothing to do with us.

We're now essentially a service economy because we have no real manufacturing base anymore so we'll be fairly stagnant unless we experience some kind of boom which is unlikely. Even culturally we're not really a big influence anymore as everything seems to be very Americanised now (which I guess in a way is a culture based on ours so maybe we still have a little influence there!).

I wish people would stop talking down the UK manufacturing industry.

Contrary to common belief, UK manufacturing is strong with the UK currently the 11th largest manufacturing nation in the world. Manufacturing makes up 11% of the UK economy and accounts for 54% of all exports.

Something like 2.6 million people are employed in manufacturing.

The UK is up there as a world leader in phamarceuticals, aerospace, defence...

...Japanese cars...