The FT has reported that:
Sheffield Forgemasters, one of Britain's oldest steelmakers, is to be acquired by the UK's Ministry of Defence for £2.5m as the government firms up its control of vital aspects of the country's nuclear industry supply chain.
As they also note:
The deal paves the way for up to £400m of investment over the next 10 years by the MoD to replace equipment and infrastructure at the steelmaker, which has been struggling financially for years.
That the company was unable to make such an investment is not surprising. The most recently filed group balance sheet shows serious short term financial stress:
That figure for net current liabilities is not pretty.
But. there are serious questions to ask here. First, never let it be said again that strategically important companies cannot be nationalised in the public interest.
Not let it be said that the government cannot decide who should be winners and losers in our economy.
And come to that, never let it be said that investment to secure important government goals is not possible, because it very clearly is.
In other words, let it now be said, loud and clear, that nationalisation is definitely on the agenda, at least when it suits the government.
But in that case, also ask what this government is really about, because it is not the promotion of the standard Tory agenda. Instead, this company was acquired to preserve nuclear capacity. So what we learn is that the forces of oppression can be supported by the state, but maybe not much else can be.
What does that say?
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I bet the person saying that strategically important companies couldn’t be nationalised in the public interest and that government cannot decide who should be winners and losers in our economy are looking daft now.
The several people saying government shouldn’t do it less so.
Apparently the UK will be breaching its own ‘ committment’ to the non- proliferation of nuclear weapons. Just another confirmation that we are living in a literally irrational, country – that the only time we are prepared to breach our (itself irrational) committment to ‘neoliberalism/ free market whatever’ – is in the serivce of our own and everyohe else’s assured destruction.
When the Coalition was formed in 2010, I recall Osborne announced the need for urgent cuts and one of them was a loan to this business which just happened to be in Nick Clegg’s constituency.
I have assumed this was deliberate. I wonder if they had had the loan if they would be nationalised today? Steel making has faced difficulties in the last ten years so I expect the answer would be yes.
Leaving the issue of nuclear weapons to one side (which is hard, as I support unilateral disarmament) I think this is good news.
Sure, it is a move motivated by all the worst reasons but it does set a precedent. A precedent that a more progressive government in the future can exploit. A more progressive future government that has a clearer idea about what is truly of strategic importance.
I agree with Clive on that one too.
Did the people who developed the Chobham armour for tanks get bought by the Americans in the end? Or did HM Government prevent that?
If the government is this committed to the preservation of U.K. nuclear weapons, then they shall make it even more difficult for Scotland to achieve independence.
Submarines on the Clyde, the importance of Coulport and the strategic coast of Scotland all favour this government fighting tooth and nail to keep Scotland within the U.K.
Just so the government can be ready to fight the Cold War, still. Bloody maniacs.
It would be better if they extended their nationalisation of strategically important companies to those owning wind farms, and the land they are on.
Wind farms can help in the fight against our greatest enemy, which is climate change.
Why not just quickly place some orders with it for some expensive bits of steel? Seems to work with keeping BAe and the other parts of the military industrial complex profitable.
Was there no friendly politically connected hedge fund available to take it over on the promise of those profits?
Context is required. Sheffield Forgemasters was at the centre of the Supergun affair (1990); a monumental scandal in which the Government had managed even to attempt to deceive itself in its attempts to hide the truth; and which led to a public inquiry that even revealed the appalling, duplicitous nature of the heart of Government; yet a thorough report that still managed to produce no consequences for anyone or anything in Government; the ship sailed on regardless, floating through on the spillage of more whitewash over everything.
Nobody cared then, and I have no reason to believe anyone cares now about such issues, or even cares as much as in the past. This is how Britain ‘works’, and this is what the electorate votes for.