It seems that the government's policy of maintaining high energy costs, along with the dumping of Chinese steel on the world market, has made the UK steel industry unprofitable. Incredibly the British Government is successfully leading opposition to the European Union's attempt to raise tariffs against cheap Chinese steel.
David Cameron's spokeswoman said the G20 meeting in China in September could be a good forum to discuss issues concerning the global steel industry. Next September indeed! I doubt Tata Steel will still be propping up their loss making UK business in 5 months time. Has the Prime Minister no sense of urgency?
In such circumstances does the British Government want the UK steel industry to survive at all? For whose benefit are we being governed? Certainly not English steel workers as the following press release from the Campaign for an English Parliament points out.
Where is the English First Minister fighting to protect English Steel workers' jobs?
David Cameron's spokeswoman said the G20 meeting in China in September could be a good forum to discuss issues concerning the global steel industry. Next September indeed! I doubt Tata Steel will still be propping up their loss making UK business in 5 months time. Has the Prime Minister no sense of urgency?
In such circumstances does the British Government want the UK steel industry to survive at all? For whose benefit are we being governed? Certainly not English steel workers as the following press release from the Campaign for an English Parliament points out.
Where is the English First Minister fighting to protect English Steel workers' jobs?
Tata Steel has confirmed it intends to sell its entire steel operations in the UK, putting the jobs of about 15,000 workers at risk. The UK Prime Minster, Cameron stated “We are not ruling anything out. I don’t believe nationalisation is the right answer, what we want to do is secure a long-term future for Port Talbot and for other steel plants in the UK.”
But who is speaking for England? It definitely isn’t Cameron as he mentioned Port Talbot, the Welsh Steel Works by name. We also have a Welsh government wanting to broker deals to save Port Talbot. The First Minster for Wales, Carwyn Jones has publicly stated the Welsh Government will support "any viable option" to secure the steel industry's future in Wales.
So where is the English government fighting to protect the English Steel industry? The answer is that no one is specifically allocated to speak on behalf of English Steel workers. How much longer are the people of England going to be denied their rightful voice?
Eddie Bone, Campaign Director for the Campaign for an English Parliament stated:
“English Steel workers are disadvantaged because they only have the UK government speaking for them and that government is made up of Welsh and Scottish MPs. The Welsh and Scottish steel workers have a clear advantage over English steel workers as they have First Ministers raising their concerns.The UK can no longer say it treats its citizens and workers equally, English workers urgently need an English First Minister”.
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