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Mandy may not have turned up at the , but there was plenty of passion on show.

The Corus workers made it quite clear that they wouldn't go quietly if there turns out to be no long term future for the Redcar plant.

But they didn't quite get the answers they wanted from Lord Mandelson's deputy, Pat McFadden, who did come to the meeting.

He was resistant to the idea of Government subsidies or bail-outs for the steel industry.

But on today's Politics Show, the local MP Vera Baird was more positive about the prospects of government aid, if it was about getting the plant through a particular gap in its order book.

For now though .

But of course that might just be a stay of execution, and certainly Pat McFadden was far from definite when asked if he thought the Redcar site could survive.

It's a pain that many parts of our patch can sympathise with.

Next year is the 30th anniversary of the closure of the Consett steelworks, and then of course there were the coal mines.

The economy has recovered from those devastating blows, but there was a lot of heartache inbetween.

And many would say the communities in County Durham have never been the same even if new jobs have replaced the old ones.

Teesside will be hoping to avoid the same fate, but it is ominous that the Government is also looking at a Plan B - what to do if the plant closes.

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Technical problems today meant we lost the chance to talk to the Shadow Minister for Teesside, Greg Clark, about Corus.

He was at the in Manchester.

I'm not heading there though.

Good news for my now thankfully receding Man Flu (and for any Tories who stood to catch it), but I shall miss the chance to catch up with local Conservatives.

My colleague Mark Denten is there though, and you can follow him on all week.

I'll also be blogging from afar!

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