There is a failure at the heart of British industry – we do not plan for the future.
The absence of an industrial strategy from successive governments is why we have chronic manufacturing decline and deep pockets of unemployment scarring communities, and it’s why the rest of the world looks at the UK as a cash cow for their own industrial ambitions.
This is what political failure looks like. The devastating announcement confirming the compulsory liquidation of the British Steel site in Scunthorpe is another case in point. Uncertainty now surrounds the future of 5,000 direct jobs and up to 20,000 in the supply chain.
The pain among workers and their families in North Lincolnshire is something that communities in North Lanarkshire know all too well, when the once-mighty Ravenscraig plant closed its doors in 1992.
Nearly 30 years on, it’s a scandal that the same fate could now befall Scunthorpe. Have our politicians learned nothing? Repeating the mistakes of the past can be avoided and the solution is very obvious. British Steel should be nationalised.
This isn’t ideologically driven, it is a fact that we need a source of domestic steel to meet the industrial and social challenges of the future.
The UK Government’s target for 60 per cent of future offshore wind sector content to be produced in the domestic supply chain is once such challenge.
Earlier this week, former BiFab workers launched a campaign to demand EDF bring jobs for the manufacture of turbine jackets on the NnG windfarm project to yards in Fife instead of Indonesia.
The steel for these jackets will have a “made in China” stamp but it doesn’t have to be this way.
By nationalising the Scunthorpe site we can save jobs now and offer a future for working-class communities across the country, like Methil and Burntisland.
From the foundry to the fabrication yard there is a better way, if only our political elite can lift their legacy of failure and start planning for our future today.
- Gary Smith is GMB Scotland Secretary.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel