AMID the tragic wreckage of Teessside's steel industry, there has been a resounding consensus. And that is about the dignity of the workforce.

Bosses, politicians, and commentators have all been struck by the way the devastating news about the closure, and now liquidation, of the plant has been handled by those whose livelihoods depend on steel.

Even steel minister Anna Soubry has told us how taken she has been with the attitude of the Redcar workers and how sad it is that, through no fault of their own, they have not been able to overcome the economic challenges facing the steel industry.

Today we report how the workers are determined to carry on stoking the fires at the Redcar steelworks in the full knowledge they may well be working for nothing. It is a mark of the quality of Teesside's steel workforce that they will fight to the very end to keep the hopes of survival alive.

They know as well as anyone that the chances of rebuilding a viable steel industry, and re-employing the 1,700 redundant workers, are extremely slim but they have to try.

In the meantime, the Government has made an £80m crisis fund available to the area to support training and business start-ups. That will obviously help but it will not come anywhere near filling the great black hole left in the local economy.

And, while the steelworkers of Teesside cling to rapidly fading hopes, the Government has to face up to the fact that the steel industry across the United Kingdom is in crisis.

With the global playing field being far from level, the need for a root and branch review of UK steel is of the utmost urgency.