YP Letters: Change of heart needed to save steel

THANKS to Chris Burn for a good article about the “Steel 2020 Manifesto for Steel” warning of the threat of continued decline (The Yorkshire Post, January 27). EU state aid rules hinder help for steel and other industries. Brexit could help, but the real problems lie in British attitudes.

Chinese policy provides Government help via low-paid workers, an undervalued currency and other support to drive down prices and force overseas competitors out of business. That’s the real problem. I’m not being anti-Chinese, for Britain did the same in the 19th century with cotton. Markets are rarely “free”.

Sadly, British Ministers led EU countries in refusing to apply tariffs to prevent steel dumping. Like their Labour predecessors, the Conservative-led coalition showed little interest in manufacturing. When Redcar steel plant closed, right-wing journalists and the TaxPayers’ Alliance opined that Britain should not support steel, claiming this was an outdated industry. Were they primed by Ministers?

An advocate of “free markets” and leading economic adviser to the Leave campaign, Professor Patrick Minford, predicted that by leaving the EU “we would mostly eliminate manufacturing”.

Britain and the world needs lots of steel. The Government’s recently published draft Industrial Strategy is sketchy about steel’s future. A radical change of heart is needed by British Governments.

It will come too late to restore Redcar’s steel industry and those forced into unemployment but let us hope it can develop the rest.

Beware lies from the left

From: Alan Chapman, Bingley.

THERE are two new mantras spreading across the media spewed up by the ever increasingly left-wing bunch made up of MPs from the SNP, Green, Lib Dem and Labour parties.

First new invention starting from the PM’s speech on EU negotiations is the use of the words “Tory Brexit”. This is a complete fallacy. The UK departure from the EU is the British People’s Brexit, carried forward by the Conservative party on behalf of the voting majority on referendum day.

The second is that business taxation must not be reduced.

There is sense in moderate reductions to help employers to cope with the burden of the £9 per hour living wage set to be implemented by 2020. The present rate £7.20 per hour, will over the next three years increase by a significant 25 percent. Many employers are very worried and doubt they can sustain such an increase in their annual wage bill. This is a two-edged sword as easing financial taxation pressure on business reduces the likely return to rising unemployment.

A new left-wing Labour government would want top rate income tax and corporation tax set equally at eye watering levels. Thankfully Jeremy Corbyn makes them unelectable.

From: Keiron O’Brien, Otley.

THE plan by HM Government for Brexit is deeply flawed. There are many reasons to oppose this action, and I highlight one.

The envisaged hi-tech/high earning future for the UK is a pipe-dream; governments never get investment right (remember the DeLorean fiasco) and it is no good trying to educate bright young people to achieve this dream. For the unpredictable world in 10 or 15 years’ time, educate them in what?And how will the UK pay its way in the intervening years? This is a gamble with huge odds. Our EU membership must not be thrown away so lightly.

From: David Lee, Tennyson Close, Caistor, Lincolnshire.

NICK Clegg keeps going-on about having a second referendum; doesn’t he understand that June 23 was a second referendum?

The decision of the majority vote in 1975 to stay in the Common Market, as it was then called, was based upon Edward Heath’s lies that it was not a political union, but a trade treaty.

The decision of the majority vote in 2016 to leave the European Union, however, was based upon 40 years’ experience of the reality of this Union. He should respect this decision.

So far as trade negotiations are concerned, I would have thought that it was in the best interests of all countries if things stayed the same until new agreements are signed.

This would greatly reduce uncertainty and help to stabilise currency rates. Of course, this would not suit speculators and politicians, but it would suit most.

Slim down the fat cats

From: Jeff Thomas, Strait Lane, Huby, Leeds.

WELL said Sir Bernard Ingham (The Yorkshire Post, January 25). The ‘fat cat’ culture is none other than a festering sore within the multi-nationals and the finance industry at large.

It seems to be like an old boys’ club whereby the same people move around in the inner circle, then command a huge salary, bonus and share options.

If they disappeared tomorrow, would business suffer? I doubt it. Is it not time to bring back the old-style managing director?

More jail time now, not less

From: Bob Watson, Baildon.

FORMER Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke has called for the number of prison inmates to be cut. He continued that “foolish sentencing policies” have left jails overcrowded and unable to properly rehabilitate inmates.

On the contrary, Mr Clarke, the number of inmates should be increased for the protection of us all by stopping foolish policies that hand down inadequate sentences, and give suspended sentences when custody is far more appropriate. If this means building more new prisons, then let’s get on with it.