Nationalism and national debts?

When Thailand went bust in the 1997, it seemed straightforward what the Thais had to do to fix the problem. They were drowned by massive amount of foreign debt due to unscrupulous public spending, large construction projects which were not needed and not conservatively funded, mostly through foreign borrowing made worse by the devaluation of the Thai currency. It was clear that the government and the people had to live within their means, spend less, work harder, export more and save up to pay off the debt. Luxury goods were (and still are mainly) mostly imported so it made sense for Thais to cut down on this type of spending. Many tour operators that organised foreign holidays went out of business. There is a whole generation of people growing up with campaigns for Thais to eat, buy and holiday locally to keep the money in the country. 15 years on the mood for patriotism for economic reason is still in around. People learned their lesson, for now at least.

Britain, however, relies heavily on imported products - basic and luxurious. Its manufacturing capacity is not competitive, making local goods more expensive that the imported equivalent. People want things cheap, even at the expense of the economy and social impact. The country still has faith in its service industry and believes its debt can be controlled by being able to sell these services to other countries. It will be a tough ride as long as in national psyche, people still consume the way they have done which contributed to the economy tanking. They will continue to buy clothes made in China, fruit grown in and flown from South Africa and holiday in Florida or Australia whilst the government gives contracts to foreign firms with the cheapest bid, buys trains made outside of the UK and pays non-UK-based doctors to come over for a weekend so that NHS targets are met.