The structural pattern of the economy is changing all the time. It has changed considerably in the past ten years (table 1), partly because of the emergence of oil production, but partly also because industries that previously constituted the mainstay of the UK economy—like steel, coal, textiles and mechanical engineering—have declined in importance whilst others, for example electronics and chemicals, have become the driving force of industry and certain types of services have grown out of all proportion to the national economy as a whole. This point can be illustrated by the fact that in the ten years to 1983 manufacturing output fell by 15 per cent, while at the same time the output of all services increased quite markedly and one section, banking, financial, business and professional services, insurance and leasing, grew by some 70 per cent.