Our correspondent is unconvinced that saving Scunthorpe Steelworks is justified

There has been enough hot air over the fate of the Scunthorpe Steelworks to inflate any number of balloons, beginning with the recall of Parliament. Swift can remember when such a move was connected with major international or domestic events – wars, royal deaths, economic crises.

The Commons has been recalled on 34 occasions since 1948. 17 of these occurred between 1948 and 1998. A further 17 since 2001. Even Swift’s rudimentary mathematics indicates that recalls are now twice as frequent in the current misbegotten century as they were in the last.

It might be argued that this indicates the increasing importance of Parliament. But Swift believes this would be quite wrong. Parliament is recalled at the behest of the executive, either because it is desperate to be seen to do something, or because of intense political pressure to account for itself. In the Scunthorpe case the former is very obvious.

The public simply does not care, whatever MPs might think. Parliament is a devalued institution; decisions are made by ministers (or more accurately by their officials and quangos), and public opinion is manipulated by the media. The only voters moved by Scunthorpe were – understandably – the people who were employed in the local steelworks or lived in the town.

That great man, Ronald Reagan, is famous for the dictum that: ‘Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidise it’. Or in the case of Labour and steel, don’t even bother with subsidies: nationalise it.

From an economic point of view, nationalisation makes no sense. If a thriving steel industry is so strategically important to the UK, then why wait to rescue one site now, when others have gone to the wall? We know our steel industry (such as it is) is absolutely puny, and as an asset at time of war would be negligible. Putin and Trump? Scunthorpe won’t help us. If we are convinced that having a strong national position in steel is essential then we need to do a great deal more to rebuild it.

And we have to reverse net zero, because no bloody fool, Chinese or otherwise, is going to continue to burn £50 notes in either blast or electric arc furnaces (technicalities on which our MPs are now deeply versed, it appears). Energy prices have crippled British heavy industry and will continue to do so - unless there is a major zeitenwende, as the Germans say. Of that there is still no sign: outstanding fruitcake Ed Miliband is still in charge of energy policy and we will continue to pay two or three times the price for energy that applies in the US and EU, while the Chinese steel industry gets all the perks and subsidies it wants. That does not offer us an enticing prospect. 

Swift urges his readers to ignore the bluster about the national interest, tariffs, the looming shadow of war, and the need to be able to produce Virgin Steel, whoever she might be. This intervention was a nakedly political move by a government that was extremely anxious not to be outflanked by Reform, which is gunning for Labour seats in the Red Wall, and arguing for immediate nationalisation.

Swift would be inclined to point out to Conservative voters that this should disqualify them from switching to Reform, with its economic nationalism, were it not for the fact that the Conservatives themselves backed this absurd intervention, protecting their modesty with the merest figleaf of complaining about Labour making a mess of the situation. Which is true, but Swift has his doubts as to whether the blue side would have done any better.

This government has created a very bad precedent. What struggling company or sector will be next in the queue? How much more money will Scunthorpe require to stagger on?

We have intervened in haste, and will assuredly repent at leisure.