Sunday 3 April 2016

Scottish Government acted on the Steel Crisis Welsh Government Fail us.



As the UK and Assembly governments dither over the future of Port Talbot a crisis they new was coming for month if not is years.


We must remember that Scotlands remaining steel works were saved after the Scottish Government bought the endangered plant from Tata steel in order to sell it on.

The government then sold the works and staff to Liberty House, an international steel firm, which has pledged to invest in the Scottish and UK steel industries. Not all of the 270 staff employed at the plants in Cambuslang and Motherwell will be immediately re-employed, though Liberty has said it will increase the workforce to former levels over time.

Talks which began in January this year were finalised between the 23-24 Marchon an unusual ‘back-to-back’ deal, which
will see the Scottish Government buy-up the remaining capacity at the two North Lanarkshire plants from Tata steel, before selling them on immediately to Liberty.
The deal, which is predicted to come at zero cost to the tax payer by the government, will allow the entire industrial concern to change hands without a lengthy due diligence process that usually accompanies the adoption of one company by another.

So if Labour in Wales complain that they haven't got the resourced  or the powers to do the same even partly . Then whose fault is that?

 We are entitled to ask why our Assembly is impotent and why "Welsh" Labour backed by Unions who are more interested in that party than their own members are waving their  banners and hoping that they might gain some electoral advantage over the Tories and other Parties which are offering real solutions.

The sitting Assembly Member for Pontypridd recently treated us to this on his Facebook page
Labour in Cardiff have Failed our Steel Workers but still want your votes,
So what has his Government in Cardiff Bay done?
Who apart from Plaid 's Adam Price has come up with any real solution who recently stated that " The steel crisis that has hit Tata is an opportunity to create a Welsh Steel company",

The Plaid Cymru Treasury spokesman Adam Price and the Welsh Government are at loggerheads after the former MP claimed “hundreds of millions of pounds” of the government’s reserves could be used as part of a rescue package for Tata’s steelworks in Wales.
Writing in the Western Mail Mr Price, who is Plaid’s candidate in Carmarthen East and Dinefwr, stated:

 “The Welsh Government claims that no money is available but several hundred millions are reportedly squirrelled away as a ‘war chest’ of unallocated reserves for local government reorganisation (LGR).
Instead of using it to pay for the redundancies of local government senior managers why not use it instead to avoid the redundancies of steel workers, buying an equity share for Welsh citizens in a new Welsh Steel Company.”


In response, the Welsh Government issued a statement which said: “There’s no truth in these claims whatsoever.
“This sort of baseless speculation is deeply unhelpful to the process of trying to respond to the current crisis.
“We need people working together on the basis of facts, not made up numbers.”
Mr Price then said:
 “There is a £600m unallocated reserve in their budget for next year - as it’s unallocated then the only thing we can do is speculate as to its purpose.
“A local authority chief executive told me that a similar figure had been allocated as a reserve for LGR.
“Mindful of the typical deny-and-defend response from the Welsh Government I identified two other sources of Welsh Government cash in the article, both of which could be used as alternatives for a medium-term strategy for the Welsh steel industry.
“Bear in mind also that this money would be invested over a number of years.
“The turnaround plan has an investment schedule over the course of a decade not a single financial year.”


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The difference is that it matters to the SNP Government and it doesn’t to ‘Welsh’ Labour.

Can anyone seriously argue that even if every steel job was lost before May 5th that Labour wouldn’t still be the largest party in the Welsh Assembly and win by some distance in Aberavon where the Steelworks are located?

Labour look out for their own, always have, always will and it’s right to blame them for their inaction, but if the welsh electorate keep voting for them en masse, voters must be happy enough with their performance.

Anonymous said...

I have to agree with the comment made by Anonymous above. Scotland matters to the SNP, every job lost matters. Our Labour Branch was sending millions back to the trasury as it could not see what it could possibly spend it on when they were in power, well it did make that FM a Lord.
I feel for everyone concerned in Port Talbot, but it is foolish to believe that the Tory Government gives a damn and we call Labour the Red Tories, until the people of Wales take a tumble to themselves and see Labour are only concerned about Party and themselves and not always in that order, things will not go right. Helena