Orders of the Day — Steel Industry

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 25 January 1973.

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Photo of Mr George Lawson Mr George Lawson , Motherwell 12:00, 25 January 1973

I find it very difficult, in a debate where feelings run high and each hon. Member is so obviously concerned with very real problems, not to embark upon the same kind of argument.

I represent an area which is the centre of the steelmaking industry of Scotland. We have already had enunciated the statement that by 1975 virtually all the open-hearth furnaces in Scotland—about 34—most of which are concentrated in North Lanarkshire, will be closed and that there will be a loss of at least 7,500 to 7,800 jobs.

Unemployment in North Lanarkshire is about 8·6 per cent. at present. We must think in terms of this area. Nevertheless, I supported nationalisation of the steel industry believing that the only way that it could be made efficient was through the type of change that we see being carried out now. There might be arguments about where these developments should take place, but, as I argued in my steel- making area, I felt that it was necessary for the industry to be nationalised if it was to be got off its knees. For years the industry had been going down.

There is no point in opening up all the arguments why that was so. There was, one might say, a war on both sides in this connection and people were suffering from it. There was little investment and the industry went backwards. It was clear that if it was to be put in a position where it could be reasonably confident of meeting what it was facing, the steel industry had to be made efficient. I have always understood that, regrettably, efficiency involved the application of new techniques and a considerable reduction in the number of jobs available. If I may dare to refer to Marx and Marxism, the following definition is of value: The value of a commodity is determined by the amount of socially necessary labour of average skill and intensity required for its reproduction. But when these techniques were improved it meant that the value dropped. That is good Marxism.

I should have expected these arguments to have been advanced from this side of the House in the past and to be advanced now. Unfortunately, we sometimes suffer on this side of the House, as well as hon. Members opposite. I do not know who suffers more from dogma and doctrines that virtually blind us from seeing what is required and what is taking place around us. We cannot see such things because of the dogma that comes down in front of us like a set of blinkers.

We must recognise now that the world has changed. No major country can operate on a free enterprise basis. Governments everywhere, including the great nations, are becoming more and more involved with industry. There will be no returning from this situation. That involvement applies to the steel industry.

I am associated with our party on steel and power, and when we met Lord Melchett on the first occasion he told us that merely to replace the steel industry at its present capacity would cost a good £3,000 million. We have a steel industry that suffers from many disabilities. The nation has a heavy vested interest, and if it is to be put into the position of a self-sufficient and competent industry we must face the onus that might fall upon us to defend what could happen. In North Lanarkshire and in the area of my hon. Friend the Member for Rutherglen (Mr. Gregor Mackenzie) there are heavy threats. But we must try to ensure that the steps which are being taken are reasonable.

We have heard it strongly put by my hon. Friend the Member for Central Ayrshire (Mr. Lambie) that our hopes in Scotland were high about the utilisation of what has been prescribed as the finest site in Europe—namely, Hunterston. But I am only referring to what has been said. I cannot pretend to be a judge of such matters. There were high hopes that there would be a great steel complex on that site which would be of great advantage to the United Kingdom as well as to Scotland in particular. I assume that the decision has been taken not to build a steel complex on that site.

I might be described as betraying Scotland, but for my part we must face the position that it will not be built. I put forward that view well knowing that if the decision had been taken to build my area could have become a desert because the steelmaking in the area would have been shifted to the coast. I take it that the British Steel Corporation looked at a number of sites and concluded, on the basis of past commercial judgment, that Hunterston should not be developed in that way at that time. What might happen in future is, of course, another matter. Development might go elsewhere, and I am not quarrelling at this stage should that decision be taken. I must admit that had I been a Government spokesman I should have found it exceedingly difficult to go over the head of the British Steel Corporation and take the responsibility upon myself to say that I knew better.

I am assuming that the decision not to build at that site is pretty well settled. But I repudiate the point that has been repeatedly made by my hon. Friend the Member for Central Ayrshire that if the development does not take place at Hunterston there will be an end to steelmaking and steel finishing in Scotland, with the exception of the Ravenscraig site.