There is no way an industrial country can allow itself to go out of steel production. The fact that we are presently a debt driven economy obsessed with shopping and house ownership does not alter the fact that we cannot go on that way. We have to restore a very large part of our industrial capacity so that we can re-balance our economy and restore prosperity to the majority. The Tories talk of doing this, but follow policies which can never deliver it. Neither will the markets.
To get industry going again two things have to happen. There are loads of other musts, but without these two fundamentals there is no way forward. The first is that the value of sterling has to come down and the second is that industry must have access to cheaper energy. As a follow on to my 2009 book 2010 A Blueprint For Change, with the subtitle Bold Ideas For Voters, I am well advanced on Dynamic Socialism subtitled Bold Ideas For Labour. This will offer a fundamentally new economic model tailored to the times in which we find ourselves. Watch this space.