Hmmmmm - The Royals? Chocolates and Lollies? Tea? Fish and Chips? Beer? Tourism? Mr Bean? Soccer? The Beatles?
This is a really good question....
The Answer though from Wiki is as follows:
Financial intermediation (This may change)
London is the world's largest financial centre,with financial services based around two districts: 'The City' (the City of London) and the Docklands (particularly around Canary Wharf). The City houses the London Stock Exchange (shares and bonds), London Metal Exchange (Base Metal and Plastic futures), Lloyds of London (insurance), and the Bank of England. The Docklands began development in the 1980s and is now home to the Financial Services Authority, as well as several important financial institutions (such as Barclays Bank, Citigroup and HSBC). There are now over 500 banks with offices in the City and Docklands, with the majority of business in London being conducted on an international basis, with established leads in areas such as Eurobonds, Foreign exchange markets, energy futures and global insurance. The Alternative Investments Market has acted a growth market over the past decade, allowing London to also expand as an international equity centre for smaller firms.
The United Kingdom had £21bn of financial exports in 2005, contributing significantly towards the Balance of Payments. The UK has had an expanding export business in financial service, which has been influenced by a mixture of unique institutions, light regulation, and a highly skilled workforce.
Edinburgh also has a long established financial industry, the fifth largest financial centre in Europe, with many large firms based there, including the Royal Bank of Scotland (the second largest bank in Europe), HBOS (owners of the Bank of Scotland) and Standard Life Insurance.
Several of the major English cities have large financial sectors & related services, notably the Leeds city region which is home to several large banks & building societies. Manchester also has a large financial sector, including the Co-Operative Financial Services, who run the most successful ethical fund in the UK and are the only major unit managers outside of London & Edinburgh. Manchester also has the largest professional services sector outside the South East, particularly legal activities.
The Blue Book 2006 reports that this industry added gross value of £86,145 million to the UK economy before adjustment of financial services valued at £50,165 million in 2004.
Agriculture, hunting, forestry, and fishing
Agriculture is intensive, highly mechanised, and efficient by European standards, producing about 60% of food needs [17]with less than 2% of the labour force (477,000[18] out of a total workforce of 31,598,000, 3rd quarter of 2007). It contributes around 2% of GDP. Around two-thirds of the production is devoted to livestock, one-third to arable crops. The main crops that are grown are wheat, barley, oats, oilseed rape, maize for animal feeds, potatoes and sugar beet. New crops are also emerging, such as linseed for oil and hemp for fibre production. The main livestock which are raised are cattle, chickens (the UK is the second largest poultry producer in Europe after France) and sheep.[citation needed] Agriculture is subsidised by the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy.
The UK retains a significant, although vastly reduced, fishing industry. Its fleets bring home fish ranging from sole to herring. Kingston upon Hull, Grimsby, Fleetwood, Great Yarmouth, Peterhead, Fraserburgh, and Lowestoft are among the coastal towns that have fishing industries.
The Blue Book 2006 (page 110) reports that the "Agriculture hunting, forestry and fishing" sector added gross value of £10,323 million (at 2006 prices) to the UK economy in 2004
Mining and quarrying
The Blue Book 2006 reports that this sector added gross value of £21,876 million to the UK economy in 2004.
Manufacturing
In 2003, manufacturing industry accounted for 16% of national output in the UK and for 13% of employment, according to the Office for National Statistics. This is a continuation of the steady decline in the importance of this sector to the British economy since the 1960s, although the sector is still important for overseas trade, accounting for 83% of exports in 2003. The regions with the highest proportion of employees in manufacturing were the East Midlands and West Midlands (at 19 and 18% respectively). London had the lowest at 6%.
Although the manufacturing sector's share of both employment and the UK's GDP has steadily fallen since the 1960s, data from the OECD shows that manufacturing output in terms of both production and value has steadily increased since 1945. This is a trend common in many mature Western economies. Heavy industry, employing many thousands of people and producing large volumes of low-value goods (such as steelmaking) has either become highly efficient (producing the same amount of output from fewer manufacturing sites employing fewer people- for example, productivity in the UK's steel industry increased by a factor of 8 between 1978 and 2006) or has been replaced by smaller industrial units producing high-value goods (such as the aerospace and electronics industries).
Engineering and allied industries comprise the single largest sector, contributing 30.8% of total Gross Value Added in manufacturing in 2003. Within this sector, transport equipment was the largest contributor, with 8 global car manufacturers being present in the UK – BMW (MINI, Rolls-Royce), Tata (Jaguar-Land Rover), General Motors (Vauxhall Motors), Honda, Nissan, Toyota and Volkswagen (Bentley) with a number of smaller, specialist manufacturers (including Lotus and Morgan) and commercial vehicle manufacturers (including Leyland Trucks, LDV, Alexander Dennis, JCB, the main global manufacturing plant for the Ford Transit, Manganese Bronze and Case-New Holland) also being present. The British motor industry also comprises numerous components for the sector, such as Ford's diesel engine plant in Dagenham, which produces half of Ford's diesel engines globally.
A range of companies like Brush Traction and Hunslet manufacture railway locomotives and other related components. Associated with this sector are the aerospace and defence equipment industries. The UK manufactures a broad range of equipment, with the sector being dominated by BAE Systems (which manufactures civil and defence aerospace, land and marine equipment) VT Group (one of the world's largest builders of warships), GKN and Rolls Royce who manufacture aerospace engines and power generation systems. Commercial shipbuilders include Harland and Wolff, Cammell Laird, Abels, Barclay Curle and Appledore. Companies such as Fairline Boats and Sunseeker are major builders of private motor yachts.
Another important component of Engineering and allied industries is electronics, audio and optical equipment, with the UK having a broad base of domestic firms, alongside a number of foreign firms manufacturing a wide range of TV, radio and communications products, scientific and optical instruments, electrical machinery and office machinery and computers.
Chemicals and chemical-based products are another important contributor to the UK's manufacturing base. Within this sector, the pharmaceutical industry is particularly successful, with the world's second and third largest pharmaceutical firms (GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca respectively) being based in the UK and having major research and development and manufacturing facilities there.
Other important sectors of the manufacturing industry include food, drink, tobacco, paper, printing, publishing and textiles. The UK is also home to three of the world's biggest brewing companies: Diageo, SABMiller and Scottish and Newcastle, other major manufacturing companies such as Unilever, Cadbury, Tate & Lyle, British American Tobacco, Imperial Tobacco, EMAP, HarperCollins, Reed Elsevier, Ben Sherman, Burberry, French Connection, Reebok, Pentland Group and Umbro being amongst the largest present.
The Blue Book 2006 reports that this sector added gross value of £147,469 million to the UK economy in 2004.
Manufacturing is an important sector of the modern British economy and there is a considerable amount of published research on the subject of the factors affecting its growth and performance. Of late, such things as increases in taxation and regulation have tended to diminish the favourableness of the political-legal environment for UK industry. Within manufacturing, British firms and industries have often lagged behind their overseas competitors in terms of productivity and various other key performance measures. However, Britain – the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution – continues to be one of the most attractive countries in the world for direct foreign industrial investment.
Electricity, gas and water supply The Blue Book 2006 reports that this sector added gross value of £17,103 million to the UK economy in 2004. Great Britain is expected to launch the building of new nuclear reactors to replace existing generators and to boost UK's energy reserves.
Construction
The Blue Book 2006 reports that this industry added gross value of £64,747 million to the UK economy in 2004.
Service industries
The service sector is the dominant sector of the UK economy, a feature normally associated with the economy of a developed country. This means that the Tertiary sector jobs outnumber the Secondary and Primary sector jobs.
Wholesale and retail trade
This sector includes the motor trade, auto repairs, personal and household goods industries. The Blue Book 2006 reports that this sector added gross value of £127,520 million to the UK economy in 2004.
Hotels and restaurants
The Blue Book 2006 reports that this industry added gross value of £33,074 million to the UK economy in 2004.
Transport, storage and communication
The Blue Book 2006 reports that the transport and storage industry added gross value of £49,516 million to the UK economy in 2004 while the communication industry added a gross value of £29,762 million.
