The UK steel industry was nationalised in 1967. It hit peak output of 28 m tonnes in 1970 and spent the rest of its life sacking employees, closing plants and sending huge bills for losses to taxpayers. Under Margaret Thatcher it was turned round, made profitable and privatised. In its turn the privatised industry this century has sacked people and closed works, largely as a result of the UK’s ultra high energy prices and carbon taxes.
The collapse was biggest 1970-80, taking it down from 28 m to 11.3 mtonnes. The Labour government identified many plants in the Beswick review to close to get costs down. The Thatcher government put through the closures in 1980. The industry expanded strongly to 17.8 m tonnes by 1990 as it became privately owned and profitable. In the 1990 s it performed OK, with output of 15.2 m in 2000. There was then another collapse in the period 2000-2010, taking it down to 9.7 m tonnes. After covid it fell away to 7.1 m in 2020, down to 5.6 m in 2023 as net zero policies kicked in against traditional blast furnaces. Under the current government it has halved again to under 2.5 m tonnes.
The original idea of nationalisation was to concentrate production on five coastal modern integrated works. No sooner had the big public investment been made and the pressures started to close at least one as they could not sell all the product . Ravenscraig was the first to close in 1992, followed by Llanwern in 2001 and Teeside in 2015. We are left with PortTalbot trying to build an electric arc furnace to replace its closed blast furnaces, and Scunthorpe struggling to keep 2 remaining blast furnaces open.
July 13, 2026
Indeed rather like almost everything that is nationalised or government run in the UK. The government cannot even build 100 miles of rail track. Not their money not they who get the value so what do they care.
July 13, 2026
especially nationalised healthcare, worst results in the developed world, costs a fortune, but none of the politicians are prepared to ask for its replacement with a copy from a system in one of the many countries where it is done far better.
July 13, 2026
At end of day, the real argument is NOT whether something should be nationalised or privatised (although it IS important and I’m a strong believer in privatisation in general) but WORK ETHIC and PATRIOTISM. Both traditional Judaeo-Christian values there are the most important ingredients in making a country truly flourishing at every level.
You want to do a good job not just because you’re being paid too but also because it just feels right to – to see the job done well and in good time and how it contributes to the overall well-being and attractiveness of our great country.
(This is NOT an argument for pushing religion but supporting trad Judaeo-Christian values whether you’re an atheist or a theist – lots of atheists agree with me).
July 13, 2026
And the Quakers were / are just brilliant at business. For such a small group of people, their contribution to the history of our economic success in history and in an interesting and good way has been enormous.
(And thanks to the good Quakers in my family, I was able to inherit a bit of money for private education and more. Love the Quakers – even though not practising one).
July 13, 2026
Last week, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) declared that UK government debt is on an “unsustainable and ever-rising path”. Britain needs to raise taxes or cut spending by £120bn a year to prevent debt from spiralling even further. That’s the equivalent of the entire state education budget, and roughly twice what we spend on defence.
The problem is raising tax rates from here will actually reduce the tax take. The doom loop agenda to continue prob. with the mad Ed at number 11.
July 13, 2026
I suppose they powers that be will still find loop holes and excuses to continue refusing any release of relevant raw data by vaccine status and allow the lies, decption and the absurd claims that the Covid “vaccines” save hundreds of thousands of lives to continue.
July 13, 2026
when I was in BT the financial bods called it “a very big pension fund with a small telco company attached as a sideline”
in the same way the UK is “a very big healthcare system with a small country attached as a sideline”
July 13, 2026
“Under Margaret Thatcher it was turned round, made profitable and privatised”
So at some point nationalised British steel was a success. Because it was led and controlled correctly by Mrs Thatcher. Why can a different PM/Governmnet not achieve the same?
July 13, 2026
OA
“WHY”
It could, but politicians need to have the will and attitude to put the right people in charge, be prepared to make or back up tough commercial decisions, accept the flack and complaints of those decisions, and invest as required, in addition the workforce need to understand that they are not entitled to a job for life, and need to work efficiently.
The problem is few Prime Ministers, or even Cabinet Ministers have any sort of commercial/financial knowledge, and so cannot relate to what is actually needed.
July 13, 2026
Old Alboom. Governments since Thatcher have pursued policies detrimental to the UK. Large Combustion directive shutting down our cheap, reliable coal generation. Net zero advocated by the UN and WEF largely ignored by the rest of the world. We now have an advisory judgement from the ICJ being slavishly followed by the anti British clown Hermer and next reparations for our part in bringing the world the Industrial revolution.
Every government since Thatcher have subordinate us to outside entities which wish to see the destruction of the UK.
Milibrains is the poster boy for the continued destruction.
July 15, 2026
rosagalvez.ca ‘List of countries with Net-Zero commitments and climate accountability legislation’.
Contrary to what keeps being repeated on this blog the UK is not the only country to have committed to net-zero.
In Europe Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland have, as the UK does, a political agreement committing their politicians to reach Net-Zero by 2050. And most of these countries also have a law (Climate change act, or similarly named) defining the government’s accountability to their population regarding climate ‘events’. But these can vary a lot from country to country reflecting which administrative level is responsible in fine (national, regional, municipal).
Whether that will be achieved by 2050 is another question.
July 13, 2026
When you have a country on the brink of bankruptcy, the last thing you bring in is a team of diversity and inclusion co-ordinators. Yet that is what the people here voted for.
July 13, 2026
Actually Joe, the people did not vote for Starmer and Labour policies. Only 20.4% of the electorate voted for this disaster of a government.
The reason Labour have the majority in the HoC is down to our first past the post election system and the fact many on the right of the political divide did not bother to vote.
The old adage you get what you vote for is completely wrong. The phrase should be, you rarely get what you vote for.
July 13, 2026
In theory I suppose it is not imposible to run businesses well, even when they are owned and run by the state sector (however in practive given human nature, state sector workers and politicians) this almost never happens. Not only that but the state sector cannot even subcontract or regulate industries sensibly in the interest of the public – as we have seen so often.
So the Hillsborough Law seems set to become law, known officially as the Public Office (Accountability) Bill is a proposed piece of legislation which would impose a duty on public authorities and officials to act with candour, transparency and frankness and establish offences to prosecute those who mislead the public or engage in misconduct relating to their duties as public officials.
Does with mean they will start to admit that they Covid “Vaccines” did vast net harms and stop hiding the figures (broken down by vaccine status) they have that show this. Live expectancy has declined since 2020 and quite significantly so why might this if not the Covid Vaccines then it is easy to release the figures they have to show this but they do not. Why might this be?
See the excellent Dr Clair Craig posts on this (HART).
July 13, 2026
The socialist priority has been to destroy commerce and to remove national identity. The naïve ideology they advance is unity and commonality. Everyone must be the same, to achieve that bizarre objective that flies in the face of every Darwinian observation ever recorded outside the insect world is to deny reality.
The closure of individual businesses which is currently underway thanks to Reeves and the sterling work put in by Rayner prior to her fall from grace is a step along the way to totalitarianism. The irony of that state of total control is the members of society that are more equal than others are all to be in the state employment sector and of course the ruling political class.
Orwell’s Animal Farm identified the mechanisms Labour and the other left wing members of our political class believe in. God help us all.
July 13, 2026
The irony is the state has gone rusty and is rapidly rotting.
July 13, 2026
Indeed it always seem odd to me that lefties very often like to use the phrase “a race to the bottom” about capitalism when it is clearly socialism that takes everyone (other than the corrupt politicians and officials with their Zil Lanes) to the bottom and very quickly indeed.
July 13, 2026
Not just the socialists. All Governments since MT have worked to destroy our country.
July 13, 2026
On another topic entirely, how is it possible for the police to decide what the motivations were or were not behind a crime, and indeed to try to declare a moral judgement on people who discuss motivations?
Surely it’s rather like the police deciding a burglar carried out his/her deed because they were poor, greedy, or envious of the person they burgled. It’s not really the point of them to debate the moral background. They’re there to solve the crime, and to leave true motivations precisely to discussion by psychologists, politicians and other outsiders who can decide society’s role (if any) in a crime.
July 13, 2026
Steel is an essential product in many forms for modern life. Its production requires capital, raw materials, labour and energy, plus sensible management to produce steel at a profit. The obvious question is over energy and its absurdly inflated cost in the UK with additional net zero restrictions. If we persist with national economic suicide by Miliband, steel along with all other energy-intensive industries will become uneconomic. Why Labour MPs cannot understand simple economics worries me.
July 13, 2026
Effective nationalisation of industries is a figment of the strange socialist mind bent on dogmatic solutions.
Just like soaking the rich and taxing the rest of us to pay for ever more benefits for labour voters, taking otherwise performing industries into State control is part of the dogma socialists follow. Not because it works but because it is imprinted in their minds as a play list, a road to a full-on socialist state.
It’s socialist policies that have been inflicted on industries that used to return profits and benefits, like the water industry or the railways, that have brought them into the frame to be nationalised.
Nationalisation was never about rescuing anything it was always a part of the plan to create a big brother state.
July 13, 2026
It was privatised, placing the wrong people in charge. It effectively was allowed to be consumed by a company protected from competition in its home market, and grabbed to remove a competitor. The Tories effectively then closed the Industry down under the excuse of NutZero.
Don’t get me wrong Nationalised Industries are a serious dangerous problem to all markets around the World, they both drain the taxpayer and get weaponised by nefarious actors, whether the Socialist ideological Unions at Home or Foreign Governments seeking an advantage.
I have suggested this before, but it is hard for some to get their head around, the best people to run an industry, any industry is those that are engaged in it and it is their livelihood. The Taxpayer money thrown at getting these privatisation projects off the ground would have been better spent supporting loans etc for the management/workers to get going. As it stands a big protected foreign buyer pops up and naive governments see, ££’s flooding their way. Yes, the government may see an instant boost, the outflow of taxpayer money has stopped , but the purchases are made with asset stripping involved – sell the assets the companies future to pay the loans. There is never new money coming in, there is never new investment coming to create a tomorrow. They are killing tomorrow. Then there is the as in the case of steel, those that turned, had aspirations to block/remove competition, keep their home country mills flowing and send money that should be circulating the UK economy back home to pay taxes at home. We have a naive Parliament and its Government with no concept of how businesses are run as such they are facilitating the UK Taxpayer is ripped off once again.
“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” Cars, boats, steel, energy….
From the Electorates point of view it would pan-out as ‘keep voting the same party over and over again and expecting different results’ – is Insanity. Then you look at all those vying for a place in the UK Parliament you can see that ‘insanity’ has become embedded. – Sack ’em all’ and find another way – embrace democracy? would be a good starting place
July 13, 2026
My Lord,
I think we also need a complete overhaul of the way people sell to and buy from the state sector.
Before you can supply a product to say the NHS, you are forced to tell the state how many of this type of person and that type of person you employ and a whole host of other irrelevant things just to tender to supply a bandage.
All this box ticking takes time and money and those costs are passed on to the NHS and thus, the tax payers.
All the NHS really needs to know is, whether the item is fit for purpose and how much it will cost and how quickly the company can supply it. It doesn’t matter how many one legged women are on the board.
July 13, 2026
‘Margaret Thatcher’ was balancing budgets, controlling expenditure. She was doing what every household in the country is faced with daily. Since then we have Parliaments that are so up themselves and have lost their purpose and also their moral compass – the focus is to spend(give away) to those that you want to bribe to vote for you at the next election.
It was previously said Parliament, its Government, seeks to ‘bribe’ people with their own money. That’s all changed it is now to ‘bribe’ people to vote for you with ‘other’ peoples money.
Today in the media a review has suggested is the Burnham is seeking to win the next election by taking £38bn from those that would never vote for him and give it to those that will. All well within scope when it is recognised that his cabal is in power with just the support of 1 in 5 of the electorate and the so called alternatives have ‘all’ lost their way.
To many in all quarters engrossed in ‘self’, ego. They have lost their purpose and are unable to put the people and country first, preferring to fight and not work with.
July 13, 2026
the best bit of hearing about British Steel is it reminding me of the XTC song which mentions it in the lyrics
July 13, 2026
In the Guardian:- Starmer is expected to use last week in power to push through Hillsborough law.
Stalled legislation aims to prevent cover-ups and help families seek justice after major disasters.
Will this be the first sensible thing he has done in two years? Though I expect this bill is stuffed with loopholes for the government as Blair’s FOI act is. The first major disaster to find the truth on is the net harm Covid “Vaccines” and net harm lockdowns £600 billion borrowed and spend doing vast harms by Sunak and Boris. We know it already but it would be good to have the clear and honest data if only to avoid any repeat and to help spot and help the Covid vaccine victims where they can be with their heart arrythmias and other issues, cancers and other issues.
July 13, 2026
I’m in favour of Trade Unions as they can protect the weakest, but……
In 1977 I worked for a refractory company that secured a contract to reline a smallish furnace in British Steel Rotherham during a shutdown. Grabbing the easiest job I endeavoured to get the crane driver to empty the skip the wreckers were using and return it. The crane driver could easily see when the skip was nearly full and obviously chose that moment to have his “break”, even though he had been merely sitting there waiting to empty the skip, thus disrupting the speedy progress of the contract and my powers of persuasion fell on deaf ears.
Marty McFly went back to 1955 but will the emperor with his new clothes take us back to the 1970s.
July 13, 2026
If Margaret Thatcher was able to turn round the nationalised steel industry and make it profitable before privatisation it would suggest that nationalisation is not the problem. Net Zero is of course the problem, a “solution” to a non-existent problem, CAGW, which would not have been invented by the Left if this “solution” did not sabotage the West’s energy to deliberately cause impoverishment and national insecurity. Those who believe in an anthropogenic climate crisis caused by burning fossil fuels when CO2 is just 0.04% of the atmosphere and 97% of CO2 emissions are natural are as deluded as those around King Cnut who believed in anthropogenic tide control. Water vapour, which is 10 to 100 times more abundant in the atmosphere than CO2 and absorbs far more of the planet’s IR radiation, is the main greenhouse gas which keeps us warm at the surface and radiates excess energy to space. This is in addition to the enormous effect on the climate caused by clouds.
July 13, 2026
There have also been big changes in the industry, the emergence of China and India have perturbed a market dominated in the 1970s by the US, Japan and the Western countries, the replacement of blast furnace steel by aluminium, composites, zamak and plastic, the arrival of much smaller steel plants with versatile electric arc furnaces. All these developments have perturbed the market for blast furnace steel and over the last fifty years it could be said that UK Steel whether in public or private hands might not have known how to successfully adapt to what the domestic and the international markets needed given the glut of steel provided by the new entrants in the steel market by the emerging economies.
More recently since this 1st July the EU have tighter import quotas and higher export tariffs on exporters that exceed some thresholds established by the EU parliament and Council (eunews.it, 30 June 2026, Fewer imports tighter quotas …), which will obviously not help.