PublicPutting this in its own post as the usual one later with the 365 photo will be much lighter in tone.
Parliament has rushed through a bill for the UK government to take control of the Scunthorpe steelworks, whose blast furnaces would otherwise have been shut down by its Chinese owners, Jingye, in the near future. Representatives of Jingye
weren't even allowed into the plant earlier today. The new law gives sweeping powers to the UK government, along the lines of those provided by the Civil Contingencies Act. Full nationalisation of the steelworks
is now more than likely in the near future.
With a whole
bunch of reservations, ranging from the cost implications to the fact that rushed legislation is often full of flaws, on balance I support what's happened today. With the changed world we now find ourselves in, the ability to produce our own steel has become vitally important. We can't risk importing it all and having other countries refusing to sell it to us if we're going to use it for certain types of product -- notably armaments. There was a reasonable suspicion that the Chinese would shut down the blast furnaces very soon if we didn't act, so this time I think the emergency was real.
Workers at Port Talbot steelworks in Wales will doubtless wonder why this wasn't done for them too. Those furnaces have already been shut down, and structural surveys have shown restarting them might well lead to outright collapse, so sadly it's not a reasonable risk. Electric arc furnaces are coming to that steelworks, but it'll be several years before they're up and running -- and for the reasons outlined above, we just can't wait that long. I suspect Labour would lose the Westminster constituency that contains Port Talbot,
Aberfan Maesteg, now though. Reform were a clear second in July, so I'd expect them to take the seat.
¹
¹ As a side issue, there's a fascinating "What if?" about a future Wales largely divided west/east(ish) between Plaid and Reform to consider...But on a wider canvas, I think current events are probably going to lead to a bit more economic nativism here -- not on the scale of what Trump's been going on about, but for the first time since the 1980s I suspect "Where's the best value for money?" will take second place to "What gives the UK the most security?" in certain industries deemed economically vital. I
do blame the govenment (and the last one) for taking so bloody long to conduct its reviews into things like steel production. Again, I'm not sure we really have the luxury of taking that long any more. Ukraine and Trump
have changed our world.
There are loads of domestic political implications here, but rushing to judgement right now is fraught with danger. That being so, I'll do just that! I suspect most of the electorate don't really follow or care about the steelworks (plural), but the 10% or so who do care
a lot, enough to switch votes. With things as volatile as they are, that's enough to change election results quite a bit. I also think Keir Starmer will need to either move closer to the EU (not "We should rejoin" or anything like, I'll be clear) or get out of the way and let someone else do it. "Red lines" from a year ago are pointless now.
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loganberrybunny
