British Steel must now join the modern economy, not be a prisoner of the old | Will Hutton

Lack of investment and vision has dogged UK industry, while China has literally forged ahead

The fate of incoming Labour business and industry secretaries seems to be to launch emergency rescue packages for industries that would otherwise face imminent closure.

Witness Jonathan Reynolds at last Saturday's extraordinary parliamentary recall arguing for the legal right to take over the running of British Steel from its Chinese owner, Jingye, in order to save up to 3,500 jobs and Britain's strategic capacity to make steel. And witness Tony Benn, in 1974, offering a financial lifeline to 3,000 workers forming a cooperative to save motorcycle manufacture at the failed BSA plant in Meriden, near Coventry.