Can One Imagine The Left-Wing Press Criticising Their Party In Such A Way?

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-3519996/DAILY-MAIL-COMMENT-crown-jewels-lose.html

ABers who regularly criticise the Mail for being a 'Right-Wing rag' and for being bias in their reporting, should take a look at today's reports, headlined:

BATTLE TO SAVE BRITAIN'S STEEL INDUSTRY

Especially this:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-3519996/DAILY-MAIL-COMMENT-crown-jewels-lose.html

That's the difference between having the freedom a voice of one's own, and toeing the Party line.

[Zacs-Master]

How can an Indian owned company losing £1m per day be a Crown Jewel?

[anotheoldgit]

Zacs-Master

British Steel was one of our 'crown jewels' till we sold it off to India.

[Zacs-Master]

It was privatised in 1988 AOG. Long before it was sold to India.

[anotheoldgit]

Zacs-Master

/// It was privatised in 1988 AOG. Long before it was sold to India ///

Sorry if you misunderstood my term 'British Steel', I was of course referring to the British Steel industry.

[Zacs-Master]

Yes, the one that is largely Indian owned and losing &1m per day. I think we already covered that so my question remains, why is the a Jewel in our Crown?

[mikey4444]

For once, I agree with the DM !

( it has happened once before, when they mounted that excellent campaign to prosecute the killers of Stephen Lawrence ! )

To rely on foreign steel, to power our manufacturing base, would be sheer folly. It looks as if China is slowly but surely putting steel production out of business beyond their borders....it isn't just Britain that is being harmed by this dumping.

Chinese steel may be cheaper today, but what about the future ? Perhaps China will decided to raise its prices, when it knows that there is no longer any viable opposition. What then ? If we have torn down all our steel production, we won't be able to revive the industry very quickly, if at all, when we have to.

We still need steel. Look what a complete fiasco there is around the building of Hinkley Point C, another important infrastructure project given out to foreign owners.

Our Government needs to start protecting the jobs of our own workers, and start safeguarding our "crown jewel" industries.

[Zacs-Master]

Mikey, to protect a foreign owned private industry losing £1m is insanity. We don't see any profit from this so, whilst I have every sympathy for the steelworkers, subsidising jobs for the sake of keeping people employed is not an option. If it were, then we would still have a mining industry.

[Bobsy]

On Breakfast this morning it was said that Great Britain blocked the attempt by the EU to stop cheap imports from China. What do the anti Europeans think of that then innit ?

[Gromit]

AOG

It was Harold Macmillan in the 1980s who accusedHer Royal Highness the Queen of Wesrminster, that we were "selling the family silver". He was right.

It bought the Tories an election victory, but now the country is paying for that. 40,000 jobs will disappear. The Tata business is worthless and we should not waste anymore money there, no bailouts, no subsidies and lining the pockets of foreigners.

The hypocrisy of the Daily Mail is not worth commenting on.

[ToraToraTora]

Cobblers gromit Britsh steel was losing £1m a week.

[albaqwerty]

please educate me : British Steel was/were losing £1m a week, Tata are losing £1m a day.
so, nationalised companies are bad?

[Gromit]

Tora,

The nationalised British Steel made £190million profit in 1987, the last year before it was privatised. It was precisely because it was a successful, profittable concern, that the Government was able to sell it.

[Gromit]

The Chancellor, December 1987

// With permission, Mr. Speaker, I should like to make a statement on the British Steel Corporation. The corporation today announced its half-year results for 1987–88. These show a bottom line profit of £190 million. This compares to £178 million profit for the whole of 1986–87. This is an impressive improvement in the corporation's performance and I am sure that the House will join me in congratulating the corporation and all its employees on such an impressive achievement.

As the House is aware, the Government are committed to returning successful state industries such as steel to the private sector as soon as practicable. It is quite apparent that the British Steel Corporation has now reached the stage where it would benefit from a return to a fully commercial environment. I am therefore pleased to announce that I am setting in hand the work necessary to privatise the corporation as soon as possible, subject to market conditions. Legislation will be required to turn the corporation into a private company. This will be introduced later in the current Session. //

[Peter Pedant]

// How can an Indian owned company losing £1m per day be a Crown Jewel?//

I quite agree ZM - bought for a £1 and up for sale as that now

and it was said at the time Tata would soak up the subsidies and ditch t he company when the subsidies stopped -which they have done

crown jewel or lump of coal ?

[Jackdaw33]

Although a Tory, I have never been a fan of privatisation. I recall to mind a remark of Mikey's hero, Aneurin Bevan, shortly after the war when he said, "This island is built on coal and surrounded by fish. Only an organising genius could create a shortage of both at the same time".

[jno]

Just to answer the question, there's a long history of left wing press criticising Tony Blair, for instance. The Guardian advised readers to vote LibDem at the election before last.

So the answer is yes.

[EDDIE51]

To make steel you need Iron ore. The UK has none so we have to import 100% of the Iron ore to make steel. Nearly 5,000.000 tonnes so far this year!
http://www.ferro-alloys.com/en/News/Details/204292
The argument about losing our steel industry leaving us at the mercy of foreign steel producers is worthless. If they want to 'cripple our industry' as the Daily Wail suggests, they just have to refuse to sell us or increase the price of, Iron ore.
We need to concentrate on importing raw steel as cheaply as possible and then converting it to the high specification / specialised forms we need.
Making steel from Iron ore is a dirty & relatively low technology industry. We can do without that part of it and concern ourselves with turning low cost imported steel into high cost high tech products.

[Gromit]

I have just read the article.

I cannot see one line of criticism of the Conservative Party. Perhaps you can show me where it is.

[ToraToraTora]

Yes Eddies and even leaving aside the costs there is also that extra "carbon footprint" in transporting the ore.

[Gromit]

And most of the coal is imported for some reason.