1. Nationalized means poorly run. Effective companies emerge through competition amongst many companies, and are guided by profit-motivated shareholders, not barely invested and highly distracted politicians.
2. A semiconductor manufacturer needs to be based in a region with a substantial semiconductor supply chain to be successful, and for the UK to develop such a supply chain, it needs a broad-based shift that makes it less-social-democratic/more-capital-friendly, i.e. a more performance oriented economy.
This is only true if you do it wrong. Read "How Asia Works" to find out how SK and Japan built good nearly-state-owned companies through export discipline.
The article notes much more foundational properties of the booming Japanese economy, like a smaller portion of private sector output being taxed to support the public sector, as more likely causes of its growth.
2. A semiconductor manufacturer needs to be based in a region with a substantial semiconductor supply chain to be successful, and for the UK to develop such a supply chain, it needs a broad-based shift that makes it less-social-democratic/more-capital-friendly, i.e. a more performance oriented economy.