[rhyds]

As Osem says, subsidising failing companies is simply not sustainable long term.

You complain that we've closed mines and are importing coal, the simple reason for that is it costs more to dig the coal out of the ground than it does to import it, because British mines are old, deep mines that are expensive to operate. Steelmaking is going through the same issues. It simply costs too much to make steel in the UK.

One major factor in UK heavy industry is that while other nations were busy investing in modernisation of their coal and steel industries, the UK suffered from terrible industrial relations caused equally by short-sighted unions with their "a steelworks is there to create jobs, not make money" mentality. For example, the shipbuilders unions wouldn't allow shipyards to invest in more efficient rolling mills because they were operated by one man, when the older ones took three. So of course UK shipbuilding lost ground to foreign competition.

There is also blame to be had for inept management who knew that the government would bail them out when it all came crashing down, and, when amalgamation and nationalisation came about, spent more time squabbling internally than looking to see what the competition were doing better (or worse) than they were.