Starmer said: “British Steel is part of the fabric of our nation and a cornerstone of Britain’s industrial strength.
“Today’s decision secures the future of steel making in the UK, protects skilled jobs and safeguards a vital national capability. This government will always act in the national interest to support British industry, strengthen our economy and ensure the industries we rely on can thrive long into the future.”
It’s a technology well past its use date and is worth less than nothing. Which is why we’ve all got to subsidise it, obviously.
Sigh.
“Starmer said: “British Steel is part of the fabric of our nation and a cornerstone of Britain’s industrial strength.”
Err, is that why BS was sold by the Conservatives to a Chinese company in 2020? A foreign company that subsequently tried to blag millions off the government (aka the British taxpayer) in grants?
Fucking hypocrite.
“It’s such a vital part of the fabric that I appointed Ed Miliband as Energy Security Minister to ensure that we can no longer make it from raw materials!”.
I must admit that I feel a twinge of jealousy when I see all these Korean and Chinese cars whizzing around and all the British marques are dead or dying, killed off by politicians and the Labour spawn of unions…
To make steel you need cheap energy – ownership is less important.
This isn’t about making steel, it’s about the politics of subsidies to buy votes in marginal constituencies. Labour can’t shovel billions of tax payers money in to a Chinese (or American) owned firm but they can in to a nationalised firm, especially one with plants in marginal constituencies.
There are at least half a dozen mosques in Scunthorpe now. Just sayin’.
Putting the cunt back into Scunthorpe.
Listening to (I think) the CEO of British Steel on the telly this morning explaining that the Government plan is to take control of the company, turn it into a profitable business and then sell it to private investors (he knows people who are interested, apparently).
Is it just me or does that sound just like the headline of this post?
Why would anyone doing an interview like that not be sniggering in response?
You just have to look at all the forms of transport. Coaches and planes run pretty well and make a profit. Trains are shit and need massive subsidies. Politicians just don’t have the experience in a thing, and they can’t help but try and make an organisation do more than its purpose.
Like the NHS is suffused with the green agenda. They waste money on solar roofs for hospitals that will never make a return on investment. Nuffield don’t. Nuffield focus on getting patients treated. They buy the cheapest energy to operate. And they’ll do the same thing with British Steel. They won’t want the plant making union members redundant. They’ll want it using more green energy. Some feminist might stick her oar in and ask why there’s so few women there, and now you’re going to get a load of diversity hires.
As the great Jordan Peterson pointed out to a feminist asking for ‘equality’, women never seem to ask for equality in deep sea diving, bricklaying, sewer maintenance, steel making, do they…..
“turn it into a profitable business”
They’re going to turn it into a hockey team.
“This government will always act in the national interest …”
This was presumably the point where his pants caught fire.
From the BBC:
In March, the National Audit Office released a report noting that the Scunthorpe steelworks was costing the government about £1.3m a day.
…
Business Secretary Peter Kyle told the BBC the government will need to cover the running costs “for the immediate future”.
He said an independent assessor will determine whether Jingye should be compensated for the nationalisation based on the value of the company.
So not only is the British taxpayer now on the hook for £1.3 million per day, but the government will decide whether they’re going to compensate Jingye for the property they’ve ‘nationalised’ or just steal it outright.
If it’s losing £1.3m a day, isn’t the value of the business negative?
That depends on whether it has saleable assets worth more than (£1.3m times number of days it takes to close down loss-making operations)
Yeah, I’d buy a blast furnace.
I would to put every Labour MP and councillor into it…
That’s an easy calculation to make then. Has anyone put in a bid to buy the business? No. So they’re not saleable.*
*According to normal economics. Government introduces the concept of ‘negative price’. What it will pay you to buy an asset.
Like the Chagos, you mean?
You’re right. I have three cheap video lights I bought when I first started shooting video for the Japs and didn’t know the job would continue, since replaced with better. They’re on eBay: no takers, so they’re worth nowt. They’ll go to the dump.
Of course they’re not saleable….
If you’d just buy a set of fancy funaces + sundries… manageable…
But *then* you have to deal with the Unions, Government, Gaia NGO’s, and a ton of other things that are somehow Important.
The only thing the ovens are good for is feeding them with the “secondary stakeholders” that are in the way of the things actually being useful and profitable.
As Carbon Addition.
An office block in London can be sold for a £billion
They make up for it in volume.
Obviously Jingye will be compensated lavishly because of sucking up to China. Clearly there is no value to the business.
They’re commies – they’ll steal it. Admittedly gradually as some independent committee decides the price which might be appealed. They’ll come for the water companies and your second homes and steal them too soon.
Another way of putting it is that they are losing an average of £95,000 per employee each year.
It’s to be taken over because we need to make steel or be at the mercy of the international market.
We don’t need to drill for oil and gas because we will still be subject to international markets.
My potato patch has made me temporarily independent of Tesco for spuds.
Presumably this will preserve jobs as we have seen previously in the docks,Fleet Street printers, shipbuilding and many more.
‘Til tomorrow.
It secures the future for waffling about the future of steel making in the UK. Dunno about the steel itself.
I have a rather successful mathematical model of a blast furnace that I never did commercialise. Is it too late to hope that I can persuade HMG to buy it? That would be some compensation for the work I did for the bastards on Chernobyl that they never did pay me for.
Does it make mathematical models of steel that you can build mathematical stuff with?
Starmer is running out of time to spend our money. What might he do tomorrow morning in his final minutes?
He’s already putting Sadiq Khan into the HoL*, how much worse can it get?
(*Which means he can become a member of the cabinet.)
Dunno, maybe Andy Burnham could stop being Mayor Of Manchester and become PM.
Only kidding.
Nothing that ludicrous would actually happen in a grown up country like ours….
You do realise that the Germans have been looking at the UK and been going “ok….*that* is the Bridge Too Far… So we can get away with *this*” looking at UK ( and French….) Clown World , and managed to build a “functioning” Uniparty for decades now….
Until the Fall of the Wall and the rise of the AfD… Because those damn Ossies weren’t Civilised… ( and could poke through all of the Tricks, because GDR and its antics….)