Indeed. Also service sector growth is heavily focussed on London and the SE. Is this service sector growth making the slightest difference to the life of most ordinary people across the UK? Is the goods sector decline disproportionally impacting ordinary people? I don't know the answers to these questions, though I have my own views.
Aggregate export figures from the government's website actually show a small decline overall for the last 12 month period, though there's not much in it.
https://www.gov.uk/government/statis...rs-web-version
James's "UK exports have increased" statement (apart from being factually incorrect) is just as guilty of over-simplifying a complex situation and cherry-picking to support a case as he accuses other people of. Beyond frustrating, indeed.