For those of us who live partly in the past, the idea that the British steel industry should be under threat is both familiar and unimaginable.
But now Tata Steel is negotiating to sell its huge works in Port Talbot and other UK interests and the spotlight is on the apparent long decline of the British steel industry, and how it happened.
For steel was once one of the pillars of British industry, one of the "commanding heights of the economy" twice taken into state ownership (at least in part) by Labour governments after World War Two, twice privatised by the Conservatives.
Some 350,000 people were employed in the steel sector when it was nationalised by Prime Minister Harold Wilson in 1967, compared with about 30,000 now.
Listen to Peter Day's programme: Steel in the UK
More to download from Peter's World of Business
Steel was at the heart of the new Europe in the post-war recovery: the EU started life as the European Coal and Steel Community. Steel was vital to build battleships and munitions, so it was a strategic industry. Steel was how a country defined itself
For those of us who live partly in the past, the idea that the British steel industry should be under threat is both familiar and unimaginable. But now Tata Steel is negotiating to sell its huge works in Port Talbot and other UK interests and the spotlight is on the apparent long decline of the British steel industry, and how it happened.For steel was once one of the pillars of British industry, one of the "commanding heights of the economy" twice taken into state ownership (at least in part) by Labour governments after World War Two, twice privatised by the Conservatives.Some 350,000 people were employed in the steel sector when it was nationalised by Prime Minister Harold Wilson in 1967, compared with about 30,000 now. Listen to Peter Day's programme: Steel in the UKMore to download from Peter's World of BusinessSteel was at the heart of the new Europe in the post-war recovery: the EU started life as the European Coal and Steel Community. Steel was vital to build battleships and munitions, so it was a strategic industry. Steel was how a country defined itself
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