As the title of this post one reply could be as regards the NE coast of England there were 3 main industries……..
1.The fishing and merchant fleets.
2.The coal mining Industry
3. The shipbuilding industry.
Today these hardly exist anymore , bad or poor decisions were politically made and those who made those decisions should admit it and not try and blame others. I am not a proposer of nationalization but even that would have been preferable to what we have today and what Oliver Hardy used to say to Stan Laurel applies
“ Another fine mess you’ve got us into Stan “. JS