British Steel must now join the modern economy, not be a prisoner of the old

Lack of investment and vision has dogged UK industry, while China literally forged ahead

- Will Hutton

The fate of incoming Labour business and industry secretaries seems to be to launch emergency rescue packages for industries that would otherwise face imminent closure.

Witness Jonathan Reynolds at last Saturday's extraordinary parliamentary recall arguing for the right to take over the running of British Steel from its Chinese owner, Jingye, in order to save up to 3,500 jobs and Britain's strategic capacity to make steel. And witness Tony Benn, in 1974, offering a financial lifeline to 3,000 workers forming a cooperative to save motorcycle manufacture at the failed BSA plant in Meriden, near Coventry.

Although 50 years apart, they both reflect the inability of the British financial and ownership system to make common cause with the state to drive forward vital innovation and the regular crises that result. BSA's demise is a moment etched in my memory. As a young stockbroker, I had lost a good part of my savings in carelessly buying and selling BSA shares in the hours before it became defunct.

As I ruefully took the bus home, I was angry not only at my idiocy but also at a financial system whose relationship with a great company was captured by dealing in its shares like casino chips even in its death throes. It was emblematic of a decades-old disengagement and lack of commitment to invest and support BSA, instead prioritising the capacity to pay annual dividends. More of this and Britain would be an industrial wasteland. Something had to change. One of the outcomes from British Steel's rescue is that, at last, this may be about to happen.