However, there would seem to be an argument that the rise of micro businesses is down to the fact that we Brits are endlessly resourceful and resilient. Our response to unexpected redundancy and lack of job opportunity has not entirely been to sink under the weight of grief, or fritter away an influx of capital by taking the kids to Disneyland. From my own experience after the pits closed, a fair majority of ex miners looked for ways to sink their redundancy into self-employed ventures; to be masters of their own destiny.
The other consideration is that we Brits young and old, faced with a world dominated by the micro chip and sitting on the brink of an existence shared with Artificial Intelligence, really do long for the comforting simplicity of Miss Marple on the Wold. Our desires as consumers has come full circle, through being enamoured by the novelty of all things bright and shiny in the 1950’s, the fascination of all things chemical and convenient in the 1970’s, the love of all things extravagant and foreign in the 1980’s and high tech and hands free in the 1990’s and 2000’s, back to a desire for all things Artisan. Being booted out by the Big Boys and swamped by their goods of sometimes dubious origin, has turned our attention back to things that are made and consumed with affection out of unadulterated aesthetically pleasing materials. We are undoubtedly a nation of shopkeepers with a fondness for pink tinted nostalgia and in the end, that could be all the advantage we need.