[banjo_milkman]

There are multiple examples of revolutionary technology from the UK: 1) ARM - dominates embedded systems, >90% of cellphones and IoT, sold to SoftBank, now on the way to NVidia 2) DeepMind - arguably global leader in AI, now part of Google 3) Illumina/Solexa - >90% of global DNA sequencing market, biotech leader, sold to Illumina for $600, Solexa sequencing now the basis for a $50bn market cap

Britain has the problem that too much of the country is focused on finance + the services that surround it, the country bends over backwards to support those industries through deregulation/not enforcing rules (LIBOR scandal et al), intervening with foreign governments to protect banks (see HSBC 'too big to jail') while pretending it is lassez-faire & does not have an industrial policy.

The ironic thing is that the financial industry could help develop these seeds of technology into behemoths but have misguidedly focused on inflating land values + developing dodgy financial instruments.

Another problem is culture - many Brits have the ambition of making $ millions of money and then retiring to a country house. Not many Zuckerbergs have emerged from the UK.

[DrScientist]

I'd agree with the influence of the city - for example when large UK companies are faced with takeover governments seem more interested to supporting the city as being 'open for business' than protecting the industrial base.