Errr............your original point was................. To which I replied.................. So as you can see the EU wanted to do something about it but it was the British government who opposed it. The EU wanted to do something about the Chinese steel dumping, would have done something about it but the UK said no.
What about the likes of Google, Starbucks, Amazon, etc. who fail to make enough money to pay proper UK taxes?
I'm Sorry Sandy ground, but I don't agree. I live in Kidderminster which some people may know as "The Carpet Capitol Of The World". In it's hey day we had over 30 companies producing carpets for everywhere in the world, our most famous being MGM with the famous Lion, the top casinos and hotels in Las Vegas and Buckingham Palace. Gradually cheap American imports took hold. Over 20,000 people were employed in the industry, now what do we have....... Just one of the large companies ( Victoria Carpets ) and 2 small ones employing a total of around 350 people. Were any sanctions ( or tariffs, or whatever they may be ) placed on the cheap American imports... NO. Did we receive any money or financial assistance from the Government to keep any of these companies going...... NO. Did the thousands who ended up unemployed receive any of the help they needed from the Government...... NO I honestly DO NOT believe one industry should receive any help/assistance from the Government but not another. Also, this is a business losing 1 million pounds a day. It is beyond help. If i had a business that was losing money like that I would be closed down and the administrators would be called in. Tata own the company and it is down to them what happens.
Yep, I've been made redundant a couple of times, once from a job I worked at for over 30 yrs, nobody batted an eyelid. The twats down the job centre just tell you to retrain, and send you on a course to show you how to write a CV?????
Spot on - this is going to be a bigger problem all round as our energy policy (such as it is) is in tatters. But steel is a core industry for a developed nation. Do you think that it would be losing one million a day if its sales had not been wiped out by cheap Chinese steel.
Hi Longk, Every industry is a core industry for the locality it supports. Do you think Kidderminster would be one step up from a ghost town now if it hadn't been for cheap American imports ?
No, so how do we convince our UK companies to buy more expensive British steel, and expect them to still compete? All I hear these days is we are in a world market, and we must compete or go under.
I see both sides here. I know the standard recommended opinion is that Britain will never again have to fight a major war on the scale of WW2, and I hope that's true, but the world is very unstable, and few people seem to be asking what China's long term plans are for the new islands they've built or the natural ones they've stolen and modified to support military kit. If Britain ever does have to fight a major conventional war, it's likely that we'd have more use for steel making infrastructure than luxury carpets. However prospect of conventional war aside, the steel industry has been doomed for a long time. People cling to it largely because they cling to the past. There are still people around my area that still moan about the end of the local coal mining and ship building industries. Except in very specific extreme circumstances, business is business.
IF we were to have a conflict with China and declared war, we could ask them to sell us some steel to build ships and tanks to fight them with, along with asking them to keep the power on at Hinckley point as we have no power of our own Oh forgot Alex Salmonds wind farms, just have to hope the year is exceptionally windy, damn forgot they do not work in strong winds :-)
Ah but the genius government, oh and this is so cunning, has actually said that China would have a financial interest in Hinckley point, and would be silly to destroy their own business interests. Pure genius (in some reality, not necessarily the same reality the rest of us are in).
Yes, but the steel industry is important on a national level (no offence to those who used to make carpets). By slapping a tariff on cheap Chinese steel. bugger, I forgot that the Eton Wallies didn't like that option when the EU suggested it!
Only if you're after cheap Chinese finance! I think that the Yanks slapped something like a 200% tariff on Chinese steel and did it pretty pronto!
