The nationalisation of British Steel marks the end of an era

I don’t think we are fully aware of the magnitude of what happened yesterday in the UK

Following the heavy blow that the Labour Party (currently in government) suffered in the local elections on May 7th, we have seen a Keir Starmer more determined than ever to offer real change

From his speech, you only need to focus on one key fact: the nationalization of British Steel

At first glance, it seems like a technical or very specific measure, but in reality, it represents a total U-turn from everything the UK has defended and represented for nearly half a century

It is, quite literally, the end of an era

To understand the significance of the UK nationalizing its steel industry, one must first remember that the country’s steel industry was already in state hands between 1967 & 1988. Everything changed with Margaret Thatcher, who applied a radical interpretation of liberalism to dismantle what she called a "stifling State." Her plan was to privatize industries, deregulate the financial sector, and allow capital to flow unhindered

At that moment, the UK stopped being a manufacturing nation and transformed into a financialized economy. It was decided that the future lay in the City of London, and for decades, the financial sector was the country’s engine: its massive profits paid the taxes that sustained the public sector and fueled a model based on the consumption of services

However, this system broke with the 2008 crisis. When the financial sector collapsed, not only did public revenue plummet (leading to severe austerity) but there was also a brutal impact on the balance of payments. For years, a very strong pound allowed Britons to import almost everything, but in exchange, it destroyed domestic industry because it simply couldn't compete 

When the pound fell after the crisis, imports became more expensive, the cost of living soared, and the country (which previously financed itself through its services surplus) was forced to survive on public debt and the sale of assets. The UK has spent nearly twenty years trying to keep afloat a free-market and "laissez-faire" model that, in practice, had been mortally wounded for a long time

What happened yesterday is historic because, Brexit aside, no government had dared to touch the foundations of this model until now 

The nationalization of British Steel, combined with the imposition of quotas and tariffs on foreign steel, marks the end of 45 years of a consensus based on state non-intervention and market self-regulation 

That the UK, the birthplace of modern neoliberalism, should nationalize a loss-making steelworks and impose protectionist measures is a devastating message to the global economic order 

It is a confession that the market does not regulate itself and that total free trade is no longer the priority

In political and symbolic terms, for London to take this path is as shocking and disruptive as if the Pope were to step onto the balcony of St. Peter’s to announce that God does not exist

It is the official death certificate of Thatcherism