Is Sajid Javid Going To Be A Good Home Secretary? Perhaps You Should Ask The People Of Port Talbot

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

So Sajid Javid is going to be the new Home Secretary replacing Amber Rudd, a woman who is either a liar, incompetent ,lazy, illiterate, dyslexic or prone to amnesia depending on your point of view. Mr Javid of course is going to bestride the Home Office like a Goliath. He will have full control of his brief. Nothing, and I mean nothing is going to pass Sajid.

However....

If a week is a long time in politics then it appears that just over two years is an eternity. For it was then that Tata Steel announced that it had planned to close the Port Talbot steelworks. An action which would have created a wave of redundancies in the area and the surrounding boroughs not just in the plant itself but in the wider economy of the South Wales.

And obviously an action which would have devastated Port Talbot as an area.

Sajid Javid was Business Secretary. So you would think he would be aware of the scale of the situation in a major employer in a major industry. That he would be aware that an important decision was going to be made (he was apparently aware of the meeting). Well no...He was in Australia at the time on a Trade mission. He had to cut short his visit and fly all the way back to Britain to try and handle this unforeseen mess.

I remember him visiting the Port Talbot Steelworks on his return. He described the steelworker I think as "magnificent" or something like that. You knew if he could kiss their backsides he would have done so if only to have left the area with all of his limbs intact. It was pitiful.

But a deal with Tata was eventually made and the steel plant was saved. As was Mr Javid's career. You see he got lucky. For he was not the only person who was caught on the hop by Tata's original decision. Step forward soon to be ex First Minister of Wales Labour's Carwyn Jones. Both of them probably knew that their careers would go down the plughole if the plant was closed so along with the Trade Unions an agreement was reached (you may remember the First Minister said it was one of the successes of his tenure that the jobs were saved).

So if you think Mr Javid will be a reliable Iron Man in his job. Come to the Port Talbot Steelworks. I suspect the response will be different.

Until the next time.