On ARIA

 I hadn't realized Dominic Cummins's plans for a UK DARPA were still being progressed.

This Spectator article on it makes a few good points on the UK's previous issues with turning new tech into successful firms:

Which is why when the UK launches ARIA, it needs to find a way to ‘land’ the transformative technologies it develops. A vision of how to retain, commercialise, and manufacture these technologies is just as required. 

Part of the problem is the hostility to manufacturing there has been since the '80s,  a legacy of the industrial issues of the '70s. In addition, there is the attitude of VCs who'd rather sell off a firm to overseas ownership than nurture it into a future FTSE100 firm. I'd disagree with having a Chinese-style 5-year plans as the author seems to suggest, maybe some forms of the tax system would help to encourage a longer tern view?

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