That once proud beacon of former industrial glory, British Steel in its present guise, faces a perilous future. The Scunthorpe works are in trouble, Jonathan Reynolds to the rescue. How did it all come to this? The seeds of destruction of the British steel industry have their origins in government intervention from the end of WW2. The rot set in when a Labour government elected immediately after the war oversaw the wholesale nationalisation of the British steel industry.

Despite a modernisation benefit available courtesy of the American Marshall Plan reconstruction programme, the steel industry in this country languished in relative mediocrity. Our production was well under capacity; critical industrial efficiencies were scarce, and to top it all costs had spiralled out of control. It was a recipe for a total disaster that went on to spawn the situation in which British steel mills find themselves today.

As with much of present-day British manufacturing, none of it, or at least, very little of it, is actually British. We have provided rich pickings for predators and asset-strippers who only see investment returns, not caring one iota about the people their unabashed greed decimates.

There are none more predatory or opportunistic than Chinese conglomerates like the Jingye Group, who are the present owners of British Steel.

So many great British marques have become the toys of foreigners over the years, but it’s the substantial level of Chinese ownership across the pock-marked commercial landscape of UK Plc that is especially galling.

Jingye Group is a mirror image of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Xi Jinping wants nothing less than to dominate and control the world, a massive part of which is to strangle the ability of other countries to independently sustain their strategic infrastructure.

This is especially true when one considers such sensitive national assets like our steel industry. To be reliant on a hostile power like China is simply suicidal. Making a mockery of common sense, a government minister has also publicly stated that another Chinese suitor for British Steel cannot be ruled out, which is simply mind-boggling.

Let’s call it what it is, Possums. Who in their right mind would risk ceding one’s future existence to an autocratic cabal like Comrade Xi’s communist buccaneers? Madness!

Another recent newspaper headline reported providing NHS data access to the Chinese potentially compromising the security of the personal information of, wait for it……five hundred thousand people!

That’s right, Possums…..half a million people! How many more blatant examples of communist Chinese opportunism do we need to see before the penny drops?

That we are treading on a nerve is indisputable. Recent pressers in both Beijing and here in London from their embassy reveal with crystal clarity that the Commissars and their dictatorial leader are far from amused at UK government intervention in Scunthorpe.

We shouldn’t be bullied, nor should we allow ourselves to be played and used as Donald Trump’s lackeys, they say. Rather ironic bemoaning a disregard for a rules-based order when they wilfully ignore treaties and international arbitration rulings as and when it suits them, don’t you think?

Cases in point are numerous with examples of Chinese Communist Party inspired meddling. Slave labour in Xinjiang; Uighur women being forcibly sterilised; separating of infants from their families to be “reincarnated” as Han Chinese too!

Then cynical trashing of any remaining vestige of an agreed one country two system political dispensation in Hong Kong, all of which only reaffirms what many believe but are too afraid to say.

The time has come for some basic honesty and facing the reality of engagement with China when it comes to trade and investment. For too long looking the other way and ignoring their abominable trading practices whilst putting all of our manufacturing eggs in one basket demonstrates the consequences of such reckless actions.

If it takes exposing the transient current owners of British Steel as what we all believe them to be, namely pawns of the Chinese government and its communist party leadership then so be it.

Claims by the Chinese embassy in London of companies like Jingye being “private” are quite simply laughable. They are deserving of being treated with respect, we are told, in the verbal diarrhoea propaganda blitz hitting the airwaves. Really?

Jingye are doing their master’s bidding as is true with most commercial entities originating from communist China. Level the playing fields and then let’s see.