But had the Government - or trade unions, for that matter - been told which plant and which jobs were being cut, could they have done anything? No, say most analysts. Thursday's cutbacks were the end of a rocky road for Corus's UK operations that started in 1996, when it was still known as British Steel.
That year the company made pre-tax profits of £1 billion - a fact picked up by incredulous Welsh First Minister Rhodri Morgan, who demanded to know why cash was spent on a £800 million special dividend in 1999 to shareholders rather than on investment in the company to protect jobs. Analysts were quick to point out that Corus's balance sheet was not the real difficulty. It was the £350m loss last year in the UK.
Problem one was the reversal in the economic conditions that underpinned the 1996 performance. Steel is a cyclical industrial commodity. In 1995, prices for hot rolled coil - the basic material - stood at DM700 (£233) a tonne (German prices were the benchmark). Since then they have juddered mainly down, thanks to world overcapacity. In November last year, as Corus executives realised a radical restructuring was required, they stood at the equivalent of DM550.
According to Jeremy Fletcher, steel analyst at Credit Suisse First Boston, every DM3 fall in price knocked £15m off British Steel's profits. The problem is worse for Corus, which was formed by the merger of British Steel and Dutch Hoogovens. With more production, every DM3 fall knocks off £20m.
Alongside this has been the strength of the pound against European currencies, which hammers Corus's overseas competitiveness. In mid 1996, the pound stood at around DM2.20. It has since soared to a peak of DM3.40. On Friday it stood at the equivalent of DM3.07.
The other key factor is that demand from UK manufacturers fell by 13 per cent between 1988 and 2000, while in the rest of EU it rose by 23 per cent. Corus had to respond by exporting more. In 1990, it sent 28 per cent of production overseas, by 2000 it was 43 per cent, exposing it to the vagaries of the exchange rate.
Meanwhile, says Fletcher, those UK manufacturers who wanted steel wanted higher-value product that would have been better sold overseas, where they could have held their value. The result was dire: low-value commodity 'flat' steel being exported.
UK steelmaking has also been hit by low-cost imports, particularly from Russia and Asia. The Iron and Steel Statistics Bureau shows that in 1970 the UK's 19 million tonne market for steel products was met with 18 million from the UK and 1 million overseas; 2000 saw the UK exporting 7.3 million tonnes and importing 6.6 million tonnes.
Some in the City clearly believe that the restructuring process has grappled successfully with these problems. Corus has cut steelmaking capacity by closing Llanwern's blast furnaces, along with flat mills at Shotton and Ebbw Vale. Corus's flat production falls by 2.7 million tonnes - almost exactly what it exports to Europe, leaving its more marketable long products division, producing rails and beams, more intact.
Fletcher points out that with a modest upturn in the world steel price in the second half of the year, along with other savings, the company will be strongly back in profit by 2002.
So much for problem one. The gravity of the situation has been made worse by problem two - the pig's ear that the company has made of managing this situation.
This part of the story goes back to the 1999 merger. British Steel and Hoogovens joining forces followed a round of consolidation among German, Belgian, French and Spanish steelmakers, all responding to the dismal global outlook. This is where Rhodri Morgan's £800m went. To make the merger work, British Steel paid the money back to its shareholders. Analysts and The Observer predicted at the time that thousands of jobs would have to go.
Then came the botching. Two chief executives, British Steel's John Bryant and Hoogovens' Fokko Van Duyne were appointed joint chief executives.
Last year they announced 4,500 redundancies across the company. Unions were outraged because it appeared that some of these would have to be compulsory - a course never taken by British Steel.
But then it got worse. The economic outlook worsened as sterling gained strength and steel prices weakened. The City was unimpressed - the cuts were seen as insufficient, and the share price dropped.
According to people close to the company, Corus panicked. One said: 'You had two chief executives, which was confusing for a start. Van Duyne was used to running Hoogovens, which is a small company, and was not used to the glare of the FTSE, and he was used to European boards, where chief executives are less powerful.
'You had these two guys going into the board and presenting different schemes - shut down Teesside, close Llanwern, cut across the group. There were three very difficult boards from July onwards, where the non-executives said, look these are your responsibilities. By November Moffatt said "enough".'
The rest is history. In December Van Duyne and Bryant left. Moffat took over, promising radical cutbacks. It was bad news all round.
Moffat, a dour Scottish accountant who made his name by axeing jobs at Port Talbot in the 1980s, slammed down the shutters. As one union member said: 'They did not consult us. The first our members heard about it was on the radio. It was disgraceful.' The Government shared the view.
One official said: 'At least the previous management listened. Last summer, for example, they were talking about closing plants, and we put a strong case for them not to do it. They did not close them.'
Moffat was different. 'We asked them if there was anything we could do. Was the climate change levy a factor? Could we put a package together for research and development? Could anything be done on reducing their business rates? Could they manage their energy bills better? It's not the way to do things.'
Hopes now rest on negotiations between the Government, unions and Corus to save some parts of the company. But hopes are slim. The ISTC argues that the exchange rate and steel prices are going the right way. There could be a future for the plants. The City says no. That's what counts for Corus. As another government adviser spat: 'Moffat has made up his mind. He's retiring and he wants the share price up before he goes. That seems to be it.'
If this is true, what chance have they got?
