Ministers are also, unaccountably, dithering over awarding Rolls-Royce contracts for Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) that would help meet the UK's nuclear power needs and green energy targets as well as creating jobs.
Would a combined group keep its primary listing in the UK or move to the US – well, what do you think?.
The failure to back one of our biggest companies in a key industry will only encourage Astra to continue shifting its centre of gravity towards the US and away from the UK.
Rachel Reeves thinks the recipe for growth is to pour taxpayers' money into the state sector where productivity, as my colleague Hamish McRae has pointed out, is shocking.
It could encourage pension funds to invest in UK equities and it could scrap Stamp Duty on share trading.
