Latest news with #JimCallaghan
The Herald Scotland
13-05-2025
- Politics
- The Herald Scotland
I'm grateful to the SNP when I recall the harm Tories and Labour did
But I also know that if I wait until after 9am I will get through within a few minutes. If I am seriously worried and don't want to wait three or four weeks, I will be offered triage by a qualified nurse or a telephone consultation with a doctor, usually on the same day. As a last resort, I will be told to attend the surgery after 11am, but that I will probably have to wait a while. None of this is perfect, of course, but given the state that Scotland has been left in after my lifetime of Jim Callaghan's Labour, Thatcherism, Blair/Brown light-touch financial regulation, and 14 years of Tory austerity, I am glad that I have the SNP Government doing its best to protect me from the likes of Nigel Farage, Reform, Scottish Labour and the hapless Tories. John Jamieson, Ayr. The Brexit deficit When I first read Ian Lakin's letter (May 10) I thought it was a UK Government press release but then I realised he was being serious. Evidently the SNP are "narrow nationalists" for wanting Scotland to rejoin the EU (some contorted logic there) while Mr Lakin is apparently oblivious to the fact that Brexit was brought about by narrow nationalism of the "little Englander" variety. Basically, people were conned during the EU referendum campaign by a mixture of blatant lies, sophistry and subterfuge (remember the Leave assertion that departing the EU would mean an extra £350 million per week for the NHS?). The Independent published an article in March which revealed that Brexit was costing UK business more than £3 billion per month. If Mr Lakin believes the agreements he refers to in his letter will offset this then all I can say in response is dream on. Alan Woodcock, Dundee. Read more letters Indy is the way forward My mother was a repository of wonderful clichés; I was reminded of one, the oft-cited "if wishes were horses then beggars would ride", when reading Robert IG Scott's letter (May 12). Contrary to all evidence he predicts the return of a Labour/Liberal return to power at Holyrood. Surely he will acknowledge that the Starmer/Reeves Axis of Callousness, in dismantling winter fuel payments, ghosting the Waspi women, signalling their utter tone-deafness in relation to people with disabilities and prattling on about "working" people hasn't exactly made their local branch representatives very popular. I don't know what my mother would have said if confronted with such an obvious disconnect with reality. The Scottish people are canny and many of them have already figured out that the way out of this morass is to ensure there is an overwhelming independence vote on the list to provide the backbone required to release us at last from what Alex Salmond once called "the yoke of mediocrity". Marjorie Thompson, Edinburgh. • When faced with explaining 19 years of party failures on the election doorsteps the clever people in the SNP have come up with a campaign novelty to divert the subject: independence ("Indy will be 'central' to SNP 2026 election campaigning", The Herald, May 12). This has been done, lost and subsequently endlessly reborn before. Mr Swinney wants a 60% to 70% vote in favour this time, which sounds like a de facto referendum but in an even less doable form. If a referendum is really needed what about asking the public if they still want to retain Holyrood at all given its very questionable track record? Does this recycling of the independence tactic not demonstrate an underlying sheer desperation to hang on to power? Dr Gerald Edwards, Glasgow. Backlash to Trump's tariffs 'Squeeze til the pips squeak' – first quoted by Sir Eric Campbell Geddes, First Lord of the Admiralty re German reparations at the end of the First World War – has come to mean the exertion of maximum pressure to extract maximum compliance: something President Trump has so far failed to inflict on Vladimir Putin but has been happy to do to the global trading system courtesy of his tariff policy. And 'pips' have indeed been squeaking. In a brash and somewhat vulgar post-Liberation Day statement, the US President informed the world that they are all calling up and 'kissing my ass'. (The 'they' in this instance being the countries affected by blanket tariffs of 10%, with the threat of more and higher to come.) The UK squeaked quietly and politely and has come away, not with a comprehensive trade deal, but a memorandum of understanding on tariffs with headings on automotive, steel, aluminium and beef etc – with serious work still to be done. Effectively we received a slap on the wrists rather than a full-blown Glasgow kiss for being an economy that's a little too 'closed' according to President Trump. More significantly, perhaps, the 'pips' of US big business are now squeaking louder in opposition. Apple, Tesla and Boeing, for example, each employ between 140k-170k people and anywhere between 30k70k of these are employed in overseas subsidiaries: these are flagship firms at the heart of key global value chains. Like it or not, US Inc remains integral to, and therefore dependent on, a global trading system created in its own image in the post-war period. This represents a massive, fixed investment (and legacy) that cannot be changed overnight by a tariff policy designed by a property developer and economically illiterate White House sycophants. This is one of the reasons why Trump tariffs, if they stay, will go down as one of the biggest acts of economic self-harm in history. Ewen Peters, Newton Mearns. The English royal family I note with interest Mark Smith's column ("Not My Scotland: anti-royal protesters have got it wrong", The Herald, May 12). The royal family are all born in England, live in England and their titles and ceremonies are reflective only of English history. Scotland plays no role at all in this: the coronation is an Anglican service in continuity with coronations preceding the Union of 1707, the regnal number is reflective of England's monarchy and while the heir to the throne could, if he wanted, use his title of 'Prince of Scotland', he only ever uses the title reflective of an English narrative (and conquest) of 'Prince of Wales'. Monarchs require simple, uncritical, loyalist followers to maintain their position; people who don't mind them pleading poverty ('oh, the polo ponies'!) while being extremely wealthy, with property in many countries, and as the Panama Papers showed, hiding wealth abroad in tax havens where the taxman cannot get them (though they don't pay much tax anyway). GR Weir, Ochiltree. Prince William is also the Prince and Grand Steward of Scotland (Image: PA) The voice of religion The 2025 Church of Scotland General Assembly, which opens on Saturday (May 17), presents the Kirk with an opportunity to reflect upon the fact that according to Unicef (the United Nations agency responsible for providing humanitarian and developmental aid to children worldwide) there were two million (in October 2024) severely malnourished children globally at risk of death due to funding shortages for therapeutic food. With both Donald Trump and Keir Starmer cutting foreign aid that situation can only deteriorate. In that context the Assembly cannot forget its obligation to speak truth to power in both Westminster and the White House, not forgetting in the Israeli Knesset which is responsible for the suffering and death of so many innocents in Gaza. The Irish Times suggests that 'the siege has prompted a whole new level of suffering'. This particular human catastrophe defies comprehension. I, from my Presbyterian perspective, was impressed by Kevin McKenna's recent article ('How new Pope and Catholic Church have mesmerised our Godless societies', The Herald, May 10). The General Assembly must recognise the wave of hope amongst impoverished populations generated by Pope Francis, by the appointment of Pope Leo XIV and by the words of Professor Jim Conroy of Glasgow University in the aforementioned article: 'We're living through the most extraordinary attack on what it means to be a human being' but 'the power of the Gospel can counteract this'. It is good to see the voice of religion speaking out when politicians are failing miserably. John Milne, Uddingston.
The Guardian
14-04-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
The Guardian view on taking back control of steel: back in state hands, but far from sorted
In 1976, night-shift steelworkers at Templeborough – then the world's largest electric arc plant – broke a production record. A letter from Prime Minister Jim Callaghan awaited them, hailing the shift a triumph for the state-owned plant and for Britain. It might be back to the future after Sir Keir Starmer greeted Scunthorpe workers this weekend, to mark his government taking control of British Steel from its Chinese owners. The UK has stumbled – or rather been dragged – back into industrial policy. After decades of laissez‑faire hand-wringing, the looming closure of Britain's last blast furnaces forced the business secretary's hand. Nationalisation, a word redolent of postwar statecraft, is back on the table. And rightly so. Britain's policymakers are waking up to the fact that strategic sovereignty isn't a quaint 1945 idea – it's the key to energy transition, secure supply chains and a functioning economy. Steel is also about political memory, local identity and who gets a future. That question has long been answered unevenly – and steel regions are where the consequences land hardest. Chris McDonald, Labour MP for Stockton North and former chief executive of the UK's steel innovation centre, told MPs global steel isn't a free market – it's shaped by state power. France backs its industry with procurement. Germany subsidises energy. China hands out cash. The US blocks foreign rivals. The UK's mistake has been to outsource industrial policy to the market. Globally the steel industry accounts for around 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions. To reduce that requires moving to electric steel mills that produce about 80% less carbon compared to a blast furnace. But this greener form of steel production relies on two key inputs: recycled scrap for most applications and DRI (direct reduced iron) – iron with minimal impurities – for aerospace or medical uses. Pharmaceutically pure steel may sound niche – until you're replacing a knee. Surgical implants demand extreme purity, zero toxicity and total corrosion resistance. If the UK wants low-carbon steel, it needs a plan for virgin iron. But that means building DRI plants, greener supply chains and long-term access to high‑purity iron ore – none of which Britain currently produces. It's a rude awakening for a country that bet on the market to deliver. The Swedes, as it happens, did not make that bet. They built a ecosystem of state-owned mining, steel and green energy firms, and delivered fossil-free steel to Volvo in 2021 – with subsidies, strategy and shared purpose. Germany and Austria are following suit. Meanwhile, the UK parliament has only just decided it's OK to intervene. The Scunthorpe takeover concedes what should have been obvious: steel is a national asset, not just another market failure. But the roadmap is missing. Green-powered DRI plants are the likely next step, feeding electric arc furnaces. But these slash steel employment by 80%. The real challenge? Shifting workers fast enough to green jobs before the old ones vanish. The government's forthcoming steel strategy must do more than tinker. It must forge the future. Less than 10% of global iron ore reserves are currently suitable for DRI. Analysts suggest there needs to be a tenfold rise in DR-grade supply to meet a 2050 net zero target. Better to get ahead now than play catch-up later. Britain must resist the allure of short-term fixes and think like a country that still makes things – and wants to keep doing so.
