It is a tragedy that jobs will be lost and homes will suffer - but as far as the plant is concerned, it is not retrievable.
There is a massive global downturn in the cost of steel production, and China, once the UK's major company, now manuafactures its own domestic requriemtens. Add to that the world market slump, and unprofitable companies, go to the wall, that is market forces.
the governemtn - apart from the fact that they are contrained by EU regualtions which prevent a bailout - are sxavvy enough to know that financial injections of tax players money will not save this plant, it has to shut.
So yes, it procokes the age-old knee-jerk reactions, but the area will need to adapt and grow in other areas - as other areas have had to do.
I live in Stoke-on-Trent, once home to one of the biggest steel manufacturers in Europe, on of the biggest Michelin sites in the world, and the largest producers of finer pottery in the world - and all have gone in the last twenty years.
I do not recall massive media coverage, or massive government hand-outs, the area has suffered hugely, but communities have to get on with what is, not with what would be ideal.