As British steel industry goes into meltdown, government faces some burning questions

In January, PM was boasting of high steel production but pressures were obvious and remedial action now is too little, too late

Nobody should expect the government to write an open-ended, taxpayer-funded cheque to support the steel industry. But it is reasonable to expect ministers to be alert to a crisis at its early stages and to avoid making a bad position worse. On both counts, the government has questions to answer.

Back in January, David Cameron boasted that the UK's steel production was higher than in Labour's last term in office "because we have a car industry that is growing, an aerospace industry that is growing, and construction is growing." Those words now read as blinkered disregard for pressures that were obvious at the time. It is not fresh news, for example, that the steel price has plunged and that China is dumping its excess production on world markets.