Quote Originally Posted by Brin View Post
My late Father-In-Law also worked there for over 30+ years a roll turner so, we too have a family connection to the place like yourself. Like you've pointed out, isn't it a sad state of affairs that we now ship our waste metal to the likes of China and India only to buy it back from them. This has to go through stringent quality checks to be able to meet our UK standards but, we by it back at an inflated rate.

Do you think if the Government supported the steelworks as say a new British Steel, we could compete with both China and India or is it all down to unions, workers rights, health and safety and of course the expected wage for a skilled crafts person? We know all of these go out of the window or don't even exist in some work places in both China and India?
Even the Yanks can't compete with mass production so we've no chance Brin - for the reasons you've outlined. Where we differ from the US is that they'll protect their product via tariffs. We're a more "free market" and "stuff where it comes from" attitude. Very short-sighted. Although I note that we, the taxpayer, have recently bought a controlling interest in Sheffield Forge Masters for "national security" reasons. I think it's something to do with our submarine manufacturing. So I support that.