A Corus line — and a dance of death.
The announced closure of the Teeside steelworks is of course a tragedy for the people who will now be out of work, for their families, for those who depended on their wages buying goods from local businesses, and for the suppliers of goods and services to the steelworks with all the knock on effects that will create.
But it’s unavoidable. It’s also the right thing to happen.
Where is the justification in pouring money into somewhere making something no one wants? And when even those who do want to buy steel can buy at lower price and closer to where it will be used.
Corus is a victim of a changing world. It’s also a victim to decades of blackmail by unions that eventually saw the costs overtake the price that what it produced could be sold in order to be competitive. The unions that have crippled this British industry are victims of their own success.
Unsurprisingly the whines start “What about the bankers”?
No consideration that it is generally commission not bonus that is being paid to people working in the banking sector, a commission based on a percentage of the profits that the people had made for their employers.
The question of the manner in which banking was and is being conducted being right and proper, well that’s a different matter, and one that lays directly with the government who have chosen not to address it as it’s been too much to their advantage not to do so.
No thought that what Corus made was too expensive and in the wrong place. Just “What about the bankers”. Never “What about the government and the mess that they’ve got the whole country in”.
But there is more to the failure of Corus than the obvious.
One legitimate question is not why has it failed now, but why was it not allowed to fail when it became clear that market forces had now moved the demand for steel along with the production of steel half a world away.
Another is how come the renege on the agreement to buy slab from Corus Teeside was well known and well understood early this year, yet the closure of the works has only just been announced citing the failure in the four party framework agreement as the cause.
A failure that was well known early this year.
Another VERY pertinent question is what UK government grants and other arrangements have been made thus far to Tata, the owner of Corus, not least the 2,3 billion pound ‘loan’ fund to provide for the development of an all electric car, the first factory for which would be built —– in Norway.
There is something that smells a damm sight worse than a steel works involved here, and it’s originating not from Teeside but from Westminster.
It IS right that Corus Teeside closes, it should have closed long since, the question is why did it not, and what have the costs been to the UK Tax payer of it not having done so.
Rog
January 9th, 2010 at 4:08 pm
more bullshit from the tax avoider.
Tragedy ? The only tragedy here is that you are still
churning out the usual tripe with which we’re all too familiar .
Tragedies count for little in your self-inflated book it seems..
I can’t bring myself to read the rest of your recent drivel.
Before commenting further on the woes of Britain, give yourself an uplift in the credibility stakes and move back here…or shut up.
January 2nd, 2011 at 9:33 am
SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: “A Corus line
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