Growing up in south Wales, it is hard to escape the past. More than most other tired industrial regions of Britain, there is still a strange nostalgia of days gone by. Heavy industry and manufacturing gave us Tinopolis (Llanelli), Copperopolis (Swansea) and Treasure Island (Port Talbot). Although it is only the latter that has managed to drag itself through economic depression, Thatcherism, and globalisation to the 21st century.
Now, at long last, the day of reckoning fast approaches for Port Talbot’s steelworks. At the start of the pandemic, the plant’s owners Tata Steel pleaded for a £500 million government loan. Then it offered up a £900 million stake in the company to the British state. Whitehall apparently sent in investment bankers to help conjure up a rescue strategy last month. This weekend, the Sunday Times outlined the choice facing steelworkers: a bailout from the Tories or Chinese steel group Jingye. Neither are natural allies of Welsh heavy industry.
Many steelworkers are second or third generation staff at the plant
As Tata denied
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