TONIGHT'S torch-light vigil in Redcar has been a passionate demonstration of what the steel industry means to the people of Teesside.

The steel community has united, like one big family, desperate to stick together in the hope of averting what would be economic devastation for the area.

What the vigil highlights is that this is not just about 2,000 SSI jobs, although they are important enough.

It is about the wider impact: the knock-on effect on thousands of other livelihoods in the steel supply chain; the shattering blow that would be dealt to local shopkeepers; the depressing shadow that would be cast over the aspirations of a generation of young Teessiders.

The community has come together tonight because it is the whole community that is at stake.

And that is why the economics must be viewed by the Government with a long-term perspective. Allow the steel industry to die on Teesside and the cost to the country, in terms of the social consequences, will be felt for many years to come.

Since the general election in May, high-level talks have been taking place to give the North-East a greater stake in the much-vaunted Northern Powerhouse initiative. But if that initiative, led by Teesside MP James Wharton, is to mean anything, how can the lights be allowed to go out on a North-East way of life before a devolution deal is even struck?

We applaud those families who turned out in Redcar tonight for sending out a clear message about what is on the line.

Let's hope their voices are heard in Westminster.