THE Government this week issued a 255-page industrial strategy white paper entitled Building a Britain Fit for the Future.

It is an attempt to counteract the uncertainty caused by Brexit and it aims to boost our productivity levels which last week’s Budget predicted would hold back British economic growth in the foreseeable future.

Although the document has had its critics for its broad brush, unspecific nature, it has received quite a warm welcome. In Conservative circles, industrial strategy went out of fashion when Margaret Thatcher came to power and the free market was allowed free rein. By contrast, this white paper seems to acknowledge that the state does indeed have a role in organising, promoting and supporting industry.

All of which is very interesting to policy wonks. Most interesting of all was a two page graphic highlighting the centuries of innovation that has made Britain an industrial world leader. The timeline starts with Isaac Newton inventing the reflecting telescope in 1668, and its second milestone is very blunt and forthright. It says: “1825 George Stephenson invents the passenger railway”.

Now we can debate whether the Stockton & Darlington Railway, which opened in 1825, was the world’s first passenger railway. We can debate whether it was Stephenson which invented it or whether it was Darlington’s Edward Pease. And we can wonder why the Government chose to illustrate this milestone with a picture of Stephenson’s Rocket locomotive which wasn’t built until 1829 and had nothing really to do with the S&DR.

Or we can shout: “It’s official!” Even the Government now recognises that ours is a corner of the world with the greatest claim to fame in the history of the 19th Century!

And from that comes the questions of how we are preserving that world-changing history today, and how are we going to stage a suitably prestigious commemoration for the 200th anniversary that will attract the globe to our trackbed.

MY luck run out a couple of weeks ago and I got caught speeding. I was in foreign territory in the centre of Leeds and was snapped doing 49mph on a dual carriageway where the limit was a surprising 40mph. On Wednesday I paid the price: £85 for a four-hour speed awareness course above a Morrisons supermarket.

My fellow offenders were 11 men and 10 women aged from 19 to a Teesdale lady who said: “I’m 78 – the last time I was caught I was 40.” Roadworks in Merrybent had been her undoing.

The course was interesting, informative, well delivered and worthwhile – since I passed my test in 1983, the only other intervention my driving has had was my last speed awareness course ten years ago.

And, yes, I will be more observant and more aware of my speed. The course cleverly made me conclude that I was the only one to blame for my speeding and I could do something about it.

But, have you been on the new stretch of the A1(M) between Catterick and Bedale? Boy, is it good. It is wide and smooth with sumptuous curves and speedy straight stretches. It is engineered to be superfast, but I of course will be sticking to 70. I will be the only one.