Again we hear of another area of Britain which is going to be devastated by a closure of Corus, this time in Teeside by the Indian consortium Tata.

No doubt we will see Lord Mandelson wringing his hands then going back to enjoy his life in the House of Lords.

Another example of new Labour giving up manufacturing rather than renationalising.

The long-term future of nuclear power was supported by the union Unite at its policy conference 18 months ago to provide engineering jobs.

The latest proposals are to build new generating stations at a cost of £10 billions.

But will this create British jobs?

Hardly, if previous examples are anything to go by. When the government sold off Westinghouse three years ago to Toshiba, it then appointed US-based Shaw Group to do the job based in the US. Not many British jobs there.

The latest boost to help the car industry was the "cash for bangers" gimmick. Another Mandelsonian scheme. Good for Britain? No, only 16 per cent of our cars are now being produced in this country.

Maybe this explains why the rest of Europe is ahead of us in getting out of the recession.

This government should end its reliance on finance centre politics and get down to revitalising our industrial base by taking it into public ownership.