One edition of the Guardian, with its coverage of job losses in the steel industry (Time for tariffs on Chinese steel?, 19 January), the need to prevent millions more fleeing to Europe (The Geneva refugee convention can’t cope with this crisis. Time for a rethink) and the super rich buying politicians to prevent adequate controls on the use of foreign tax havens (We’ve been conned by the rich predators of Davos), all points to one thing: the destructiveness of open borders. Yet virtually all political parties, business groupings and, to their shame, trade unions and NGOs, either rejoice in, or fail to adequately challenge, these trends. In addition, the status quo’s constant prioritisation of competitiveness and exports fails to grasp that China is a destructive export-dumping machine determined to build up its domestic economy. Hardly the likely saviour of an ever-slowing global economy.
A fairer “look to the local” approach is exactly what Europe needs to introduce. To do so it will need to rewrite its already crumbling open-market rulebook, the treaty of Rome. This should be replaced by a “treaty of Home”, emphasising the re-establishment of appropriate border controls to help the continent’s regional, national and local economies to flourish. Only this would allow the likes of the steel industry to be saved, to curb the ability of the rich to use tax-dodging havens and prevent the extreme right capitalising on the European public’s growing resistance to uncontrolled migration from inside and outside the EU.
Colin Hines
Twickenham
• The government will try to convince us that the crisis in steel is the fault of the Chinese; that the steel industry in the rest of Europe is in the same predicament and that the government is doing all it can to help. Although it is true that the current crisis is fuelled in part by the “dumping” of excess production by the Chinese, the broader long-term picture is that the steel industry has been undermined by Tory governments for many years.
Anyone seeking the truth should look at historic worldwide steel production figures. In the 1970s only three countries produced more steel than the UK. By 2014 we had dropped to 18th place in the world. Many of those overtaking us are emerging economies, as may be expected, but France, Spain and Turkey have also done so. Most importantly, of 20 European countries which make significant amounts of steel, only three have reduced production levels since the 70s and none have cut back more than the UK. And when did this all begin in earnest? In 1980, shortly after Margaret Thatcher came to power. Since then, the UK steel industry has faced many crises and closures. That long-term decline does not apply elsewhere in Europe, because many other governments have supported their major industries, rather than their bankers.
Mike Mosley
Norwich
Source: The Guardian