The End of An Era - A Brief History of Motherwell

Motherwell; until recent times a town at the centre of Scotland's steel industry, so much so that it was known as 'Steelopolis'. And now a town trying to re-invent itself after the loss of most of that steel industry, and the loss of the largest steel works in Western Europe: Ravenscraig.

Before the Industrial Revolution, Motherwell, like most places, was just a wee village. Surrounding the village was a rural landscape dotted with farms and quarries and coal-pits; farms with names like Dalzell and Ravenscraig.

But then the Industrial Revolution arrived and this small rural backwater was thrust kicking and screaming into a modern age that would see it become the very heart of Scotland's steel industry.

Between Motherwell and Wishaw there was probably too many iron and steel works to mention: the Motherwell Iron & Steel Works, Globe Iron & Steel Works, Dalzell Iron & Steel Works, Lanarkshire Steel Works, Etna Iron & Steel Works, Excelsior Iron & Steel Works, Stenton Iron & Steel Works, Craigneuk Steel Works, and many more.

A lack of investment and the threat from cheap foreign steel saw the formation of the British Steel Corporation, an organisation that simply closed steel works down to make the industry more competative.

Then Margaret Thatcher came along, privatised the industry, and the resultant British Steel ended up in the hands of India, then China.

What exactly was the point in privatising the British Steel Corporation when the end result was a UK steel industry now in the hands of a foreign power? Please, someone tell me... what was the point?

Because we now have a situation where much of the steel that we use here in the UK comes from abroad. Indeed, in the same way that much of our clothing now comes from abroad. And you wonder why we no longer have a textile industry in the Scottish Borders!

Here in Scotland and the rest of the UK, our steel industry is a mere shadow of its former self, and much of the country's workforce sits at home twiddling its thumbs.

We now have a UK able to source cheap products from abroad, whether steel or clothing or whatever, the end result of which is that the UK is experiencing what is probably the worst economic disaster in its history. For there is no money for anything; no money for the army, the police, the fire brigade, the NHS, every city council in the country, etc. There is simply no money to properly maintain the UK.

Why did UK governments not put in place a ban on cheap foreign imports on any number of products, from steel to clothing, etc, so as to secure UK industries and jobs?

WHY?

NOTE - There remain questions about the procurement of steel for the Queensferry Crossing in 2017. The Scottish Government insist that no Scottish firms had bid to supply the steel. And yet, Tata Steel's Dalzell Works in Motherwell was apparently able to supply at least some of the steel, and did allegedly put in a bid for the contract as part of a consortium. Whatever the consortium's name on the bid, Tata Steel was not a Scottish-owned company, so perhaps the Scottish Government's statement is correct. You do have to wonder if they were aware of the fact that a Motherwell steel works was part of that consortium.
There remain many questions and very few certainties in a complex picture.