'Will a new phoenix rise from the ashes of Corus?'

Hello I’m Harry Riley

Welcome to Harry’s Five-Minute-Rant

‘Will a new phoenix rise from the ashes of Corus?’

‘We live in a land of free enterprise.’ What a sick laugh!

We really live in a land of get and grab, a land full of weak politicians who cannot see further than the end of their nose. They sell off the family silver and then offer useless platitudes when things go belly-up! Such as this latest Corus screw-up in the North-East. God knows, the politicians must have foreseen the likelihood of this sort of thing happening when Corus was initially sold off to a foreign company. There have been a great many industrial precedents; Rover is a prime example.

Why couldn’t our business Tzars have had the foresight to put in some protective stipulations such as not allowing companies to close down vital plants in this country while plans are in place to build in their own or other countries. What beats me is that often these foreign firms are given incentives to take over ailing UK companies, so why can we not ask that these handouts be given back if and when they decide to close down, if only to help ease the pain of redundancy.

I understand it cannot be done if the proprietors have gone into liquidation but that is not always the case, as with the Corus owners. Workers in the North-East Region are tough and resourceful and will take this closure on the chin as they always do but the bitter memories will surely live on.

I worked in Consett County Durham for a year in the mid eighties, commuting backwards and forwards from Nottingham every day and got to know some of those straight talking folk. They are gritty hard-workers who’ve had a raw deal and deserve better. I despair of the many gutless wonders we have now at the helm in politics. Other countries try and protect their own industries so why can’t we.

After the last war this seemed to me to be a land full of hope but I have to say it is now a land where our so-called-leaders make big mistakes through complacency and

through addressing issues only on a short term-day-to-day re-active basis. Where are the pro-active, inspirational leaders who can lift us out of this quagmire of misery, doubt and despair?

I really thought Tony Blair was going to guide us to a bright new future but he turned out to have feet of clay just like all the rest. Some industries are just too important to this

country’s survival that they should never have been put at the mercy of free market conditions. The Railways and the Royal Mail should never have been privatised. Look what it’s doing to our rural communities. Talk about a land fit for hero’s! My dad’s family were miners and voted Labour.

It was the only party for the ordinary workingman. When I first got the vote I was also proud to join them and vote Labour but not anymore New Labour or Old Labour, it can go shove it’s vote where monkeys shove their nuts for all I care! I suspect I’m now like a lot of other people of my generation, Disgusted and disenfranchised with the whole political process. It seems we are hurtling back to the soup kitchens of the thirties.