So What Should We Do With Brutish Steel?

[youngmafbog]

I am in two minds here, on one side there is the terrible devistation that failure will bring to communites if we do nothing, on the other the cost seems too high to bail it out.

But in the other hand I look at the 35bn sent to tge EU and the 12bn in foreign aid and I have to ask, just how can we justify supporting other countries whilst chucking our own on the scrap heap?. Of course the governments hands are pretty much tied on what they can do thans to the eu, doubt spineless dave will get our lords and masters in bruxelles to agree to allowing us to help our own.

Havind said that we keep hearing how the Welsh would leave us and go to the eu on theur own so perhaps Port Talbot should be left for tge EU to sort out.

[mrs_overall]

Just a point - I don;t know what the stats are today, but by January this year, half of the Redcar ex steel workers had found new jobs. I suspect that figure may be higher now.
So there is hope, and Redcar (which is a dump BTW) is NOT full of men standing aimlessly on street corners

[steg]

There is more chance Of a Martian Scottish gov than a Tory one

[anotheoldgit]

mikey4444

And please tell us what Labour would do?

The Welsh Labour party cannot agree with Westminster's Labour Party, and Wales NHS is a disgrace.

But perhaps during May’s Welsh assembly elections we should get some idea, seems like UKIP may be a fly in the ointment for them.

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/feb/21/carwyn-jones-says-welsh-labour-will-distance-itself-from-jeremy-corbyn

[Prudie]

So if they had complete independence,as many of them say they want, how would Wales handle this if they were on their own?

[Sqad]

Morning mikey.

I am not clever enough to do the sums here, but I had a Travel Agency that was losing money and i had the choice of putting more money in, to save the jobs of the employees (only 3) or to close the business.

I chose to invest more money and "ride out" the problem. I closed the Travel agency 6 months later losing a hell of a lot more money in the process..."good money after bad."
Yes, I know that there is very little comparison between that and Tata, but the principle remains the same.

The morals? well that is a different issue.

[Svejk]

It's against EU rules to subsidise/nationalise industries, so I'd take what the SNP say with a large pinch of salt.

[youngmafbog]

So what about the import tarrifs?

The EU restrict us to 24%, in the US it is 200 odd %.

Good old EU again.

Another problem with just throwing so many people on the rock and roll is that many many more people rely on the cash flow from the steel works. If many are put on the dole the vast majority will be sensible and not scroungers and so tighten their belts meaning the cash flow (and tax revenues) are reduced thus throwing more on the dole.

I think Eddie may have the answer. Invest but only in specifics. We cannot give any money to an Indian company though. We must Nationalise until it is turned round.

[tamborine]

Ta ta is multinational co. from India, where they can produce steel from a cheaper labor force than in the west. It would be folly to sub the UK plant.

[steg]

Sveej, instead of salt, better taking it with a large glenfiddich

[mikey4444]

Prudie...you are labouring under the false impression that there is a popular movement in Wales, for independence from the rest of Britain.

I am not sure where you get this idea from but it is entirely false. There never has been any such popular desire. The minority of supporters for Plaid Cymru may blather on about it occasionally but they have never been in a position to even start to bring it about.

Scotland, of course, is another entirely kettle of fish. perhaps you were getting confused by the two ?

[Old_Geezer]

Aye in Wales they just build you a nice warm fire at your holiday country cottage. Or at least they used to be that friendly.

[mikey4444]

OG....not had that problem for many years now, thanks goodness !

[tamborine]

Most recycling metals are sold & shipped to India. PTalbot can join the trade ?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/1000-companies-inspire-britain/10485869/scrap-metal-trader.html

[dave50]

Some of the blame lies with the EU's ridiculous obsession with the green agenda, hijacking energy prices to subsidise stupid windmills which of course the UK slavishly adheres to.

[Peter Pedant]

YMF // I am in two minds here, on one side there is the terrible devastation //for those who will lose their jobs and on the other hand - I'm not one of them! so what do I care for Port Talbot, town far away from me and wbout which I know nothing ....

this poster like the incisive analysis from one of the usual suspects
the chapioning of the common good stands out

when we sold the british steel industry to Tata at the time people said that they would take the subsidies and when the subsidies ran out Tata would sell

and the politicians - was YMF one of them I ask - said we will face that wwhen it occurs ( meaning someone else will face that when it occurs )

[Baldric]

Just seen Angela Eagle (Labour MP) on Sky wittering away to the effect that if The Government don't bail out TA TA Steel, it will still cost them (UK Gov) millions of £'s to clear up the site anyway.
Why would UK Gov. pay to clear up the site of a privately (Indian) owned Company, doesn't make sense, even for Labour.

[andy-hughes]

I think it would be morally wrong for the British taxpayer to fund a bail-out for a private company which is acting in its own shareholders' interest by pulling out of steel production in the UK.

No such largesse was available for the mines, the potteries, or previous steel plants - they all went to the wall, and their employees and decimated communities with them.

I don't believe we as a nation should be aiding foreign companies to function - that sets a precedent that will be difficult to defend in the future.