There are a few "old rules" that Governments should follow really....

[Zak33]

..and one of those is .....

keep your steel industry alive.

Fundamentally ... without steel, we'll all shafted if we lose diplomatic ability to buy it in.

I'm not the type of person who thinks a company should be subsidised forever if it's got competition...except on things that we cant do without.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-50577380

It's as bad as having foreign companies owning our power generation, or prisons... DOH!!!

So..what is steel essential for?

Your turn...list the essential items - (to give you a hint, we bombed the German steel and engineering industry in WW2 for a reason)

[jimborae]

Bearings!

[Zak33]

Bearings!

in one

without bearings, and the little balls and rollers in them..everything comes LITERALLY grinds to a halt

Every motor and engine. Yes..even electric cars...

and that's before we make a single panel or shaped item for anything else essential, before we create a rail track, or a train!

Of ALL the industry... what you don't do it let another (famous for it's cheap steel) buy your steel plants... and then watch them shut them.

//facepalm

[jimborae]

Even as a child growing up in the 70's & 80's I worked out that Thatcher's policies of selling off our national infrastructure was wrong from security perspective. Also helped that Corby was fairly close to where I grew up & my parents came from Sheffield. Hate to say it but there are certain parts of the Labour Manifesto that makes absolute sense.

[Zak33]

Hate to say it but there are certain parts of the Labour Manifesto that makes absolute sense.

yup... I'm utterly stuck in my voting choice

but sticking to the point here... we utterly need a national steel source.

One stumble is all it takes.. one sea blockade... and steel runs out. Period.

[Saracen999]

..and one of those is .....

keep your steel industry alive.

Fundamentally ... without steel, we'll all shafted if we lose diplomatic ability to buy it in.

I'm not the type of person who thinks a company should be subsidised forever if it's got competition...except on things that we cant do without.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-50577380

It's as bad as having foreign companies owning our power generation, or prisons... DOH!!!

So..what is steel essential for?

Your turn...list the essential items - (to give you a hint, we bombed the German steel and engineering industry in WW2 for a reason)

Agreed on all counts .... except one. Which is ....

It's as bad as having foreign companies owning our power generation, or prisons... DOH!!!

To that, I would stress that limited companies (and especially PLCs) are about the separation of ownership and control. They even have a name for it - the Veil of Incorporation.

There is little wrong with foreign companies owning UK companies, be they power generation or otherwise. The problem would be if they had day-to-day management control, like the ability to start up or shut down. But they don't.

Oh, and it cuts both ways - shareholders financial liability is limited to the value of any unpaid shares.

Owners have limited control, and limited responsibilty.

Governments certainly should protect the national interest in a variety of industries, from steel to power generation to, and I'd say it may be the most fundamental .... water.

But that 's not the same as ownershjp.

Bear in mind, foreign ownership also cuts both ways - lots of foreign ownership of UK industries and assets ,,, but the UK is a major player in foreign ownership too.

A very large chunk of my undergrad work was on oligopoly theory. Much of it was about computing, but I had a stand-up row with one (Marxist) professor and he ended up citingvthe US pharma industry and one major company in particular. Having an ace up my sleeve I offered him plenty of rope, and then pointed out that his example US pharma company was actually a subsidiary of (British owned and run) ICI. He went very quiet and a funny colour at that point.

My point is - don't just consider who owns what here, but also, What elsewhere in the world is owner by the UK.

As for that pharma company, this argument was a long time ago and I haven't kept up with who owns who in phsrma. It's enough trying to keep up with who owns what in tech.