Harland & Wolff collapse is a physique blow to the nation: ALEX BRUMMER

The collapse into administration of Harland & Wolff is a body blow for Belfast and shipbuilding in Britain.

Prospects of any kind of rescue by government, or anyone else, will have been harmed by the disclosure that £25million of funding allegedly was misapplied by previous management. Investors in the Aim-listed firm will be wiped out.

PwC has been called in to assess the financial shenanigans. The audit firm knows all about how money goes missing from its acknowledged foul-up at Chinese real estate giant Evergrande.

Doomed: Harland & Wolff is best known for building the Titanic in Belfast, before she sank on her maiden voyage in 1912

Notwithstanding the historic resonance of Harland & Wolff, it should not be allowed to go down like the Titanic.

At stake is the contract for assembling Fleet Solid Support ships for the Royal Navy’s carrier force which could end up in Spain should consortium partner Navantia swoop in.

A Labour government unnecessarily committed to take Britain’s railways back into public ownership and pledging to expand the UK’s defence capabilities should be providing the necessary financing or loan guarantees to ensure survival.

Its fiscal masochism is a danger to jobs, the prosperity of Northern Ireland and the national interest. 

Encouragingly several potential buyers have emerged for the operating companies. It is axiomatic that the naval contracts should only be sold to UK enterprises. 

Babcock, which looks after much of Britain’s naval fleet, is the obvious candidate even if public cash has to be used as lubricant. 

Steelmaking and British shipyards are key to national security amid geopolitical turmoil on the high seas and in the heart of Europe.

The Starmer government needs to get shipshape and rapidly.

Big spenders

There is no shortage of advice for Rachel Reeves ahead of the October 30 budget.

She needs to put to one side overblown rhetoric about black holes. Borrowing and debt is too high and the Tories left unfinished business. 

But given the scale of crises since 2008 the UK debt to national income ratio is not disastrous. It stands at 99 per cent of output but could be considerably less if distortions caused by the Bank of England’s bond buying are eliminated.

The debt-to-GDP ratio is lower than most of Britain’s G7 competitors, and a fraction of the 250pc at the end of the Second World War. 

The Office for Budget Responsibility’s long-term debt projections released last week are based on tendentious climate change and productivity assumptions.

Economists’ letters to newspapers usually can be dismissed. The latest missive from former Cabinet Secretary Gus O’Donnell et al to the FT has merit. It cautions the Chancellor against cutting constrained public investment.

If productivity is to be ramped up, then infrastructure must be prioritised.

Reeves did not get off to a good start when she tore up road schemes for the Stonehenge tunnel, the A27 and reviving railways in her hurried ‘fixing the foundations’ plan in July.

The NHS needs investment in equipment and AI, not bigger cash budgets. Big infrastructure such as HS2 can be made to work if properly managed. 

There is urgent need for new nuclear, including small modular reactors (SMRs), if Ed Miliband’s lukewarm support can be overcome.

Harnessing pension funds holdings for infrastructure, climate change and IT investment is all well and good. 

The productivity imbalance between the South East and the rest of the nation will only be addressed with government commitment to projects such as trans-Pennine rail links. The National Wealth Fund will be useful but is woefully inadequate for the task.

Film Noir

The assault of the ‘Magnificent Seven’ on entertainment and sport has destabilised Hollywood content providers.

Warner Bros Discovery has been hard hit, losing out to Amazon in the auction for rights to the broadcast the National Basketball Association, and achieved less than 5 per cent of summer season box office sales. A blockbuster was needed to lift the spirits and a debilitated share price.

In the release Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, it finally arrived. The sequel to Tim Burton’s 1988 hit achieved record sales of £110million in the US after its September launch.

It is projected to collect £191million as it goes global. Not a game changer for a 25 per cent stock market loser this year, but a demonstration that investment in creativity works.