A change in the wind, perhaps? It was 1959, perhaps a little earlier, in my final days at school, that we aeromodellers witnessed a decline in the school's understanding of craft skills. In the fourth and fifth forms at the age of 14 and 15 a few of us were designing and building large competition model aircraft from scratch and competing in National Championships with every reason to hope for a result. I still remember the shock of seeing First Prize at the school's annual hobbies exhibition awarded to a clutch of AirFix plastic aircraft assembled and painted - not that well, as it happens - by someone who could afford to buy them in the first place, and had no design skills in the second. We all knew then that a new batch of teachers had already lost the plot: And so it has proved, with a forty or fifty year decline in UK manufacturing. While a few industries such as motor manufacture and aerospace - albeit sadly shrunk in volume - are still producing the world's best (eg Land Rover, Rolls Royce, BAe), it has been the confidence - and money - of owners and investors from elsewhere that has kept the UK boat afloat. Or, when you look at the trade balances including 'invisbles' declining for years, perhaps 'reducing the rate of decline' might be a better description. This year - 2012 - it looks as if the penny might at last have dropped in Government circles. Manufacturing is VITAL for our future prosperity. With workers in the old low-cost countries now wanting a better return on their efforts combining with a re-think on how Banking should work, maybe we'll see a return to manufacturing in this country. That need is already showing up the deficiencies of much of our education establishment. Change is badly needed. Whether it will happen will depend on parents demanding more for their hard-earned money. We'll see if it actually comes.