How Britain could forge a steelmaking revolution despite British Steel’s woes | Letters
The plight of British Steel is an opportunity for a transformative change in the way steel is made (Editorial, 10 April).Blast furnaces depend on coal, and steelmaking emits well over a tonne of CO2 for every tonne of steel, producing roughly a tenth of global CO2 emissions.Using electric arc furnaces gets around this by recycling scrap metal, but doesn’t address the primary problem.There are promising alternatives.These include making steel with hydrogen, and more advanced options such as the all-electric projects being supported by the US’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (Arpa-E).
Scunthorpe is well placed for this, close to North Sea windfarms and able to exploit cheap surplus late-night electricity,An attractive way forward would be to sustain the blast furnaces for a few more years, replacing one with an electric arc furnace,Meanwhile, the UK’s university skills could be used to develop a more innovative all-electric iron-ore-to-steel process,By making hi-tech steels that are stronger, and persuading engineers to use them, consumption and emissions can be cut significantly,Steel is essential to Britain’s economy and security, and the government is right to protect steelmaking.
But net zero is also essential to the planet’s security.Rather than abandoning the quest for net zero to perpetuate a loss-making and dying enterprise, the government has the option to foster real innovation: low-cost, low-carbon, world-leading.Euan G NisbetEmeritus professor, Royal Holloway, University of London Polly Toynbee highlights the fact that there are Conservatives who see the need for nationalisation in some circumstances (Labour has done right by British Steel – now it must speed up a radical strategy for all industry, 13 April).A prime example of this was when the Tory prime minister, Edward Heath, nationalised Rolls-Royce in 1971 when it was about to submerge in financial chaos.The principle of nationalisation when it is in the country’s interest was clearly established then.
Robin DaviesTregarth, Gwynedd The acquisition of British Steel in 2020 by the Chinese corporation Jingye was an example of economic globalisation on steroids,And see where it has got us,Such globalisation – both the offshoring and the acquisition of British strategic industries and public utilities by foreign corporations – has seen our industrial sovereignty sacrificed for short-term profit, with jobs lost, and increased costs to consumers,If one good thing comes from Donald Trump’s economic wrecking tactics, it will have been the end of globalisation – or at least its taming,And if the nationalisation of British Steel signals the beginning of the end for globalisation’s destructive impact on UK industry and jobs, I for one shall cheer.
But will this Labour government be bold enough?Robert DewarKinlochleven, Inverness-shire Everything your editorial said about British Steel has an exact analogue with the petrochemical plant at Grangemouth.If that closes, Scotland will be one of very few oil-producing countries without its own refining industry.David PatrickEdinburgh Strangely, the government didn’t move toward nationalisation when Tata declared the demise of the blast furnaces at Port Talbot.Polly LlwynfedwenLlanfaes, Aberhonddu Do you have a photograph you’d like to share with Guardian readers? If so, please click here to upload it.A selection will be published in our Readers’ best photographs galleries and in the print edition on Saturdays.
Threats to nature in Labour’s planning bill | Letter
Re your article (Planning bill ‘throws environmental protection to the wind’, say UK nature chiefs, 9 April), while Labour’s planning and infrastructure bill aims for 1.5m homes to spur economic growth, part 3 of the bill threatens both nature and delivery.The UK’s wildlife has declined 19% since 1970, with 16% of species at risk. Yet part 3’s environmental delivery plans allow developers to pay an unquantified levy for vague restoration, sidestepping the Environment Act’s principles of prevention and precaution, and risking irreversible harm to our iconic ecosystems such as chalk streams and woodlands.The bill’s “overall improvement test” rests on weak “likely” benefits outweighing harm, ignoring scientific evidence, bypassing existing safeguards and failing to guarantee delivery of biodiversity gains
Nigel Farage says Reform UK is ‘parking its tanks’ on Labour’s lawn
Nigel Farage has promised that Reform UK’s tanks are “on the lawns of the red wall” as he openly targeted Labour in a local elections speech heavy on Trump-like rhetoric but light on policy detail.For his biggest set-piece event yet in a campaign in which his party hopes to win a slew of councillors in northern England and Midlands, Farage spoke at a working men’s club in County Durham – very deliberate symbolism in what was the Sedgefield constituency of Tony Blair.“Reform are parking their tanks on the lawns of the red wall,” Farage told Reform activists and candidates in Newton Aycliffe. “Today is the first day I’ve said that, but I absolutely mean it, and we’re here, and we’re here to stay.“If you are considering voting Conservative in these areas, you are wasting your vote, because if you want a party that can beat Labour, it is now very clearly Reform
Birmingham bin strikes could spread, union leader warns
Bin strikes could spread to other council areas across the country as cash-strapped local authorities make further cuts, a union leader has warned as the dispute between refuse workers and the city council in Birmingham continues.There have been warnings of a public health emergency in Birmingham as bin bags have piled up in the streets and there has been an influx of rats, more than a month after refuse collectors launched an all-out indefinite strike.The general secretary of Unite, which is representing the striking bin workers, said there could be more strikes in other parts of the country as workers pushed back against pay cuts and job losses.“If other councils decide to make low-paid workers pay for bad decisions that they did not make, workers paying the price yet again, then absolutely, of course, we all have to take action in those other areas,” Sharon Graham told LBC.Speaking to BBC Radio 4, Onay Kasab, the union’s national lead officer, added: “If other local authorities look to cut the pay of essential public service workers, then there is the potential for strike action spreading
Another UK government is doing contradictory things when it comes to China
As even Donald Trump was forced to accept in scaling back his latest tariffs, China is just too big to ignore. And so it is, on a much smaller scale, that yet another UK government is doing several contradictory things at once when it comes to Beijing.This weekend brought a particularly resonant example. On the one hand, the business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, was hinting that British Steel’s Chinese owner, Jingye, was to blame for neglect – if not worse – over the fate of the threatened blast furnaces at Scunthorpe.Yet at the same time one of Reynolds’s own ministers, Douglas Alexander, was attending a major consumer goods fair in Hainan, the tropical island on China’s southern tip, before holding trade-linked talks in Hong Kong, a visit that was not promoted in advance
Tulip Siddiq decries Bangladesh arrest warrant as ‘politically motivated smear’
The former City minister Tulip Siddiq has said an arrest warrant issued against her in Bangladesh over allegations she illegally received a plot of land from her aunt, the country’s ousted former prime minister, is a “politically motivated smear campaign”.Speaking to reporters on Monday, the Hampstead and Highgate MP said: “No one from the Bangladeshi authorities has contacted me. The entire time they’ve done trial by media. My lawyers proactively wrote to the Bangladeshi authorities, they never responded.“I’m sure you’ll understand I can’t dignify this politically motivated smear campaign with any … comments
UK politics: No 10 ‘confident’ on securing supplies to keep Scunthorpe furnaces burning – as it happened
The government remains “confident” it will secure the supply of materials needed to keep blast furnaces burning at the Scunthorpe steel plant, Downing Street has said.The prime minister’s official spokesperson said: “We are now confident in securing the supply of materials needed. Obviously we will be working with the management to identify further raw materials needed to keep a steady pipeline, and to keep the furnaces burning.“I’m not going to get ahead of what comes next, but we’ll obviously now work on the issues of ownership.”The spokesperson added there are two ships carrying materials docked at Immingham port in North Lincolnshire, with “a third ship which is currently en route off the coast of Africa, which will be making its way to the UK”
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