Sky News and the usual ramge of spokespeople for the deluded left are creaming themselves that a new poll show that 66% of our fellow citizens think we should nationalise the Port Talbot steel works to save jobs. Or put another way two thirds of Britons are oficially thick.
Perhaps if the question were rephrased we might get a different answer. How about:
"Do you think that the Government should close your local hospital in order to spunk a million quid a day keeping a few thousand sheep shaggers off the dole?"
Or:
"Shall we cut the old age pension so that the Government can blow £365 million a year keeping open factories that can never ever make a profit?"
Of course, many folks out there believe in the Money Tree and so reckon that the Government can spend as much as it wants without consequence. But I suspect that the current poll did not explain the consequences of the State buying a factory to save 15,000 jobs.
Since the weekly loss generated by these 15,000 workers is c£500 each it seems to be a remarkably expensive job preservation scheme to nationalise the plant.
There is no global shortage of steel so the UK does not actually need these factories. Some of the sheep shaggers will get jobs elsewhere post closure but even if none did, the welfare bill for the taxpapyer would be a fraction of £500 a week.
As such there is no economic case at all for bailing out the steelworks. But there is a referendum looming so watch this pathetic Government suck up to the herd. It is not as if David Cameron is a proper Tory after all is it?