Taking the plant into public ownership would be disastrous – it is losing money. Nationalisation would therefore involve subsidy from the taxpayer in order to sustain it. Everyone would wind up paying for it, simply to keep a relatively small number of people in work.

That said, I also feel that the tactics of Ineos management were underhand in terms of pay negotiations. Their offer was, as you say, quite simply, ‘accept this or face redundancy’. It wasn’t like the employees were left with much of a choice. It seems typical of many workplace negotiations – the management playing economic chicken with the union. Sometimes, the union win. Sometimes, management win. Usually, the employees lose either way, either immediately when their working conditions are changed, or later when the company is forced to make changes.

It would be nice if negotiations were precisely that, rather than just one side making demands of the other, which seems to happen more often than not.