Labour has forgotten the realities of Ravenscraig

RAVENSCRAIG steelworks was the thundering, crashing, smouldering leviathan which symbolised Scotland's industrial tradition. In 1992 Ravenscraig closed, as the realities of the global economy hit home. For the workers who lost jobs, for the country's sense of its industrial self, it was a time of mourning for what had passed.

But when we look back we can see that the closure, decided by the privatised British Steel company, was inevitable. Scotland, and the UK, had to move on, to develop the higher skilled, technology-based jobs of the future.

How depressing, then, that when documents released yesterday revealed that the then Tory secretary of state, Ian Lang, did his best to avert the worst aspects of the closure – not his, but the firm's decision – Labour should revert to the politics of the past.

Scottish Labour leader Iain Gray said the letters released were the final insult to Ravenscraig's workers; confirmed that closure was political; and reminded us the Tories thought that unemployment was "a price worth paying".

What utter cant from a party which used the regenerated site of the plant as a symbol of the "new Scotland" for its election campaign. Is Mr Gray saying we should go back to steel- making? We think not. If anything, the papers show that the Conservatives, looking to "detoxify" their Thatcher-burdened brand, did care. Labour, as well as the Tories, must reflect on this for the future.