IT SMACKED OF desperation. British MPs were recalled from their Easter recess for a parliamentary session on April 12th to prevent the closure of Britain’s last remaining blast furnaces, in the north-eastern town of Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire. In a move typically reserved for wars and other national crises, the government passed an emergency law that gives it sweeping powers over the site; ministers say nationalisation is a “likely option”. A jumble of motives lay behind the intervention: a desire to save thousands of jobs, a strong dose of industrial nostalgia (”our industry is the pride of our history”, as the prime minister put it) and, above all, claims that national security was at risk. All these reasons deserve careful scrutiny—as does the quality of legislation passed in such haste.