It is much more efficient than it once was, but that is of little avail when there is such overcapacity in the steel industry worldwide, when nations such as the United States insist on protecting their steel mills from international competition and when the pound has been so overvalued for so long that British industry has simply given up complaining about its level. At least British and Dutch workers would have been operating on equal terms.No international investor wants to take more risks than they have to. The position of sterling outside its principal export markets introduces an unnecessary complication into investment decisions, and one that has destroyed too many jobs. Corus is simply a particularly strong case of a phenomenon that has been damaging British commerce and industry for years.

The global slowdown in economic growth merely sealed the fate of the steelworkers.Another unavoidable factor in the sad decline of the British steel industry is the quality of its management. That was true when it was under public control, when civil servants proved hopelessly ineffective industrialists and politicians vetoed plant closures. Things improved for a time, indeed the privatisation of the firm in 1988 was regarded as a landmark in the revival of British industry, but the merger in 1999 of British Steel plc with the Netherlands steel maker Hoogovens has proved to be a disaster. As with so many other mergers of this kind in the past, the promised synergies have not materialised.Clearly, Corus has lacked an adequate strategy to deal with the important global challenges it faces, characterised by an internal wrangle about the disposal of its aluminium-smelting subsidiary. The low point came with a failed attempt by Corus’ management to take over the Brazilian iron ore giant Companhia Siderurgica Nacional (CSN) last year. With such a background, it is mystifying to see the company’s executives paying themselves quite so handsomely.

Sadly, this is another depressing example of the prevalent corporate culture of rewards for failure.The most curious aspect of yesterday’s bad news was Corus’ announcement that its Teesside plant would no longer produce steel for Corus, but would be able to sell its output on the international market. There must be some doubt about the commercial viability of this set-up, of a steel maker within a steel maker. And yet if the alternative is the immediate closure, the idea deserves to be supported.Teesside will certainly face a difficult struggle to survive under conditions of such intense competition. Equally, there is the spirit in the region to put up a fight. As David Walsh, the Labour leader of Redcar and Cleveland Council, says, local people will try to keep steel making alive: “Complete closure may only be a few years away but there are alternatives. In the same way Tyneside and Clydeside fought to keep the shipbuilding industry alive and the people of Birmingham rallied behind the campaign to keep Rover, we must fight to keep steel making on Teesside alive.” If only the directors of Corus had shown the same resolve.. I would like personally to thank all those readers who have already written to me, although largely on poor-quality un-handmade stationery, it saddens me to say.

Of course, I don’t expect Smythson of Bond Street to be within the reach of everybody, but Forever Friends? Get a grip, please!

I would like personally to thank all those readers who have already written to me, although largely on poor-quality un-handmade stationery, it saddens me to say. Is it Denis-ella? Or Den-isella? Or Den-eesella? And if it’s the feminised version of my father’s name, as it is, why not Denise? An interesting question, which I thought I would put to my mother, Timothina, until I remembered that ever since I was forced to put her into a home she’s become worryingly uncommunicative. Of course, I’d have absolutely loved it if Mummy had come to live with us, but sadly she’s rather losing her marbles. The last time she came to stay I gave her the simple job of colour-coding my pashminas, and she got even that hopelessly wrong.