Britain's Labor government is determined to nationalize the country's steel industryor die trying. The formal debate over nationalization has barely begun, but the intensity of the argument outside Parliament foretells a fight that could topple Labor.
Last week, while Laborites shaped the nationalization bill that they hope to bring before the House of Commons next month, Sir Julian Pode, president of the British Iron & Steel Foundation, charged that a takeover "cannot fail to harm" the industry. Nationalization would mean "disaster for the country," warned B. Chetwynd Talbot, chairman of the South Durham Steel & Iron Co., Ltd. And Alan James...