If only some of the hype surrounding the potential of the Cambridge region comes to pass then the region commonly dubbed ‘Silicon Fen’ could become as important a contributor to the UK’s economy as the City of London is now.
However, it still has some way to go. To accommodate all of Silicon Valley’s businesses into the UK would require a technology belt stretching from Cambridge to Oxford, taking in half of the Midlands as well. Despite Cambridge’s apparent successes, and Silicon Valley’s present woes, more people are employed by one of Palo Alto’s progeny – Hewlett Packard – than the whole of the technology sector of East Anglia.
