Steel - Cameron has some explaining to do. They are all as bad as each other!

[#1]

From today's FT..

Quote

Britain blocked attempts to strengthen EU trade defenses against the imports of cheap Chinese steel that have devastated Tata’s operations in the UK, according to senior European officials. French and Italian officials said Britain had led opposition to an overhaul of anti-dumping rules that could have helped raise retaliatory tariffs in the EU to the tough levels seen in the US.The head of the European Steel Association, which represents every steelmaker on the continent, also said Britain had thwarted attempts to shut out cheap steel from China.

And apparently the head of Tata's steel operation in India has been warning the UK Government for weeks (with actual in person visits to London)  that there is a significant problem. So where did the Governmental responsibility go Mr. Cameron?
Edit: Actually I am wrong. The Tata talks have been going on for the last twelve months!

[#2]

I'm sure Mr Cameron has a letter from the Chinese to guarantee a supply of steel to this country when we need it in the future. It should be treated as a strategic defence issue.

[#3]

At the expense of the lives of thousands of people!

[#4]

There's a lot of virtue signalling going on from all political persuasions here.
The fact is that if we are to follow the low carbon trajectory which all political parties agree on (virtue signalling again) then primary produced steel from blast furnaces does not have a place. The steel has got to be recycled to meet our needs and our green policies.
Also underinvestment over many years has left us with inefficient and dirty blast furnaces without the more recent refinements of carbon monoxide recycling and heat recycling. Also the units are too small to compete with the super size units in use in China. 
But politicians tend to breeze through cognitive dissonance without a second thought hoping the public don't notice 

[#5]

Politicians should be cute enough to measure the public mood though. That's what they are supposed to be good at. Looks like this particular dog will bite a few backsides before it's done!

[#6]

this is one of the reasons and it is entirely down to stupid green policies http://www.thegwpf.com/uk-steel-crisis-gwpf-calls-on-government-to-scrap-unilateral-climate-policies...

[#7]

And down to EU Directives that we immediately implement whereas other member states do what's in their own countries interest and fail to make these changes, which may result in them paying large fines but only years later at which point they may well have saved an industry from going under.
Cameron is from a class of people who have never suffered real hardship and seem to think it's more important to support anyone other than the people of this country

[#8]

I bet we pay over the odds for the electricity we import from France too.  I thought ALL EU countries were supposed to be subject to the same 'green levies'?
France 4p/kWh (give or take), UK 9p/kWh - with electricity being cited as a major factor in the cost of steel production... [Censored] (By Europe!) aren't we.

[#9]

Quote from: nozzer

Politicians should be cute enough to measure the public mood though. That's what they are supposed to be good at.

But that's exactly what they shouldn't be doing! You can't run industry based on public opinion. They have set up a national policy based on a green agenda as Oldjim's example indicates. They should now "man-up" an say that the loss of traditional industries making basic products is a consequence of these policies and got to be endured.
We've given up on coal and steelmaking is next.  Of more consequence IMHO is what happens to our chemical industry which will be next in line.  

[#10]

This country is the only one which has a higher green levy due to the Climate Change Act - courtesy of the last labour government but supported by all the other parties

Quote

Britain’s Carbon Floor Price is a unilateral carbon tax at a floor price of £18 per tCO2. It is more than four times higher than the EU’s current carbon price which is less than £4 (€4.80 on 30 March 2016).

[#11]

just saw this http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/opinion/bill-carmichael-green-zealots-to-blame-for-steel-s-decli...