At last some realism fro Jim Carroll - yes unemployment is one of life's realities and it is not the deliberate policy of any shade of government to create it.

Another reality of life is that when governments are faced with taking tough decisions it is far, far better for the country as a whole that those decisions are taken there and then as opposed to the adoption of populist policies that just kick the can a bit further down the road in order to merely delay the inevitable.

British industry during the late 1960s and 1970s was "crap" Jim - on Steel I believe you stated it was the best in the world and that it only needed marketing - Sorry old son but if it was the best in the world as you, and others, claim then it would not need to be marketed as being the best in the world customers would be beating a path to the doors of British Steel in order to buy their fantastic products - truth was nobody was beating a path to the doors of British Steel because the steel they were making came at too high a price per ton, of uncertain delivery and inferior to what was on the market from elsewhere.