English: The Daily Mail clock, just off Kensington High Street (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The Daily Mail reports that George Osborne and David Cameron were accused of being more concerned with courting China than the fate of Tata steelworkers after it emerged they opposed a 66 per cent tariff.
Once again we see that Osborne is quicker to appease his chums in the city than protect British industry and British jobs. Osborne’s reliance on monetary policy and austerity has provided little incentive to stimulate investment and create jobs. What about increasing exports and the competitive position of the UK with skills improvement?
Thoughts?
Dr Alf's Blog 
One wonders what if anything they were promised by the Chinese in exchange for doing this.
Dr Alf is right but the policy seems to be de-industrialise and then invest secretly in foreign companies rather than exporting our way out of trouble.
The closure of Port Talbot will give China a 65% share of the global market for all steels which means that with more price cutting they can put more steelmakers out of business and then hold us and the rest of the world to ransom.
People clearly have very short memories in that in 2 World Wars this country has run out of steel for munitions and had to commandeer saucepans,cooking utensils and iron railings to bridge the gap.
Then we had a powerful navy and a large army,now we have 17 escort vessels for all our shipping and have been forced to leave the Falklands defenceless as we transfer the ship which used to guard the Falklands and its oil to the English Channel to observe Russian warships off our coast.
Without a steel industry, we have no high tech manufacturing and become a country populated by Druids,rustics running around in smocks with straw in our mouths and Morris dancing for tourists.
Last year we overspent on overseas aid by £172 million GBP which would have kept Port Talbot going for 6 months and as it is the Government should nationalise the plant and transfer all existing consultancy contracts with Tata Consulting to UK firms and qualified interims. Tata should not be paid a penny and the plant should be kept open but run at 50% of capacity.
The £16 billion GBP we waste on overseas aid should then be used to keep the plant going,find replacement jobs for those workers who are going to be replaced and rebuild our armed forces. Local authorities and the MOD should be required to use only British made steel.
Like Germany and Italy which ignored EU rules on the matter, we should do the same.