The possible closure of Tata Steel’s operations in Port Talbot casts a deep shadow over the area. There’s something familiar about this depressing story. The shipyards of the Clyde and the cotton mills of Manchester have faded. The coalfields of Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and South Yorkshire were all around me as I grew up in Chesterfield during the miners’ strike of 1984-85. Now the mining jobs are gone. Further afield, there are the job losses in the automobile production lines of Detroit, for the shoemakers of Kobe in Japan, or at Eastman Kodak in Rochester, New York.
塔塔钢铁公司(Tata Steel)可能关停塔尔博特港钢厂的消息，给这一地区蒙上了厚厚的阴影。这个令人沮丧的故事似曾相识。克莱德(Clyde)的造船厂、曼彻斯特的纺织厂都已衰败。我在切斯特菲尔德(Chesterfield)长大，周围有德比郡、诺丁汉郡以及南约克郡的煤田。1984-85年矿工罢工的时候我还是个孩子。如今，采煤工作早已消失。在世界其他地方，底特律的汽车生产线工人、日本神户的制鞋工人以及纽约州罗切斯特(Rochester)的伊士曼柯达公司(Eastman Kodak)员工，也都失去了工作。