Honestly it's genuinely shocking to me that only 8% of UK gdp is manufacturing. Not necessarily that UK manufacturing is particularly important, but just that it's a country of 70 million people. Meanwhile Singapore has a fraction of the population and a land mass less than the size of London but yet 20% of its gdp comes from manufacturing.

Overall, the lack of uk manufacturing ability is actually shocking to me, not being from there. It doesn't produce its own insulin, it doesnt have mass produced car brands, it doesn't produce much of its rollingstock or their components, etc. Etc.