Cameron doesn't care about the UK manufacturing industry

Tefal said:
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Ok forget it then. You just cannot comprehend why this is a controversial decision to make. You seem to have this jolly old idea that we can bring this contract overseas without any lasting repurcussions at all, as a nation without any job or financial difficulty whatsoever.

Cheerio me old chap!
 
So when Bombardier go down the pan shortly, and all those thousands of people lose their jobs, all will be claiming benefits etc and unemployment in the area will increase.

Was it a good idea then to award the contract to the Germans in the name of sticking to the STUPID European law.

No it's not a good idea and a stupid one, to hell with the European law.

You really think the likes of other European country's would have awarded such a large contract overseas, answer is a one big fat NO.
 
deSade said:
I don't think this government cares about anything does it?!
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Come now, be fair. They care about giving their mates all the country's money, don't they? :p

Biohazard said:
Why is Mr Cameron trying to do just that then?

Manufacturing is not dead, heavy industry is.

Would you rather a service economy or a mixed economy?
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A service economy is bound to fail, it doesn't make any money - it just moves it around. We used to have a thriving manufacturing industry. We had great engineers working for renowned government funded organizations. We had a ton of projects, and proposals that had the potential to make Britain a major player in a number of new industries, including space exploration and satellite launch capability. We made ruddy good ships. And what's more, people were proud to do these jobs. You could make something then you could take your family to see it launch, and that would inspire a new generation.

But no, apparently there was no money in that. So now every other person works in an office, doing the same thing day in, day out and never having anything to show for it. Now a generation has grown up seeing people do this their entire lives - and they've got nothing to look forward to. They won't even have the brilliant services their predecessors had, because apparently they wasted all the money so now you can't afford them.

You tell me that's progress? Because it doesn't sound like it.
 
Locky said:
So when Bombardier go down the pan shortly, and all those thousands of people lose their jobs, all will be claiming benefits etc and unemployment in the area will increase.

Was it a good idea then to award the contract to the Germans in the name of sticking to the STUPID European law.

No it's not a good idea and a stupid one, to hell with the European law.

You really think the likes of other European country's would have awarded such a large contract overseas, answer is a one big fat NO.
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I know why you are blaiming the EU but that isn't really the issue anymore. The tendering process is relatively fair, we are just at a disadvantage economically and industrially and we are not allowed to use protectionist fiscal policies to ofset that. Although protectionism isn't always the answer, it can encapsulate and ingrain inefficiency.

Competition improves inefficiency (when you are not handicapped)

Sure, pull out the EU and we do it the old way again but that at present isn't likely, so all we can do is work within the existing framework and that means improving our economic spread.
 
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[TW]Fox;19396665 said:
British trains? Since when has Bombardier been a British company?
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Does it matter who owns what in a global economy? Not really, what is important is inward investment and contracts being awarded to our own industries.

Not silly little side shows.
 
Posty said:
so you want the government to rig a fair and open bidding process?
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I just want a government that for once, puts the interests of the country ahead of their ideology. From what I hear the reason Bombardier didn't win is because their train is heavier than the Siemens one. The bidding process assigns an arbitrary weight to various factors, it would have been perfectly possible to have a fair and open bidding process that ended up with Bombardier as the preferred bidder. The thing about these sort of contracts is that the buyer usually knows who the winner will be when the tender is put out - the Germans certainly make sure that not much money leaves Germany.

£3bn that could have been used to bolster our flagging economy will now be used to fuel a manufacturing boom in Germany that we can only dream of.
 
Scorza, how would you feel if a 100% British owned engineering company tendered for a project in Germany, and lost the bidding to another company because 'The other company was German'?
 
[TW]Fox;19396665 said:
British trains? Since when has Bombardier been a British company?
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isn't it Britain's last train factory or something, most of 'british' industry is owned by foreign companies now.
 
I'd feel the same as I do now, because I'm pretty certain it happens. Where are all the big German engineering contracts going to British firms? There's an argument that German companies are simply better than ours, which I can accept to a point, but the law of averages says we should occasionally win something. I note the article mentions Bombardier's other contracts, which are all for UK companies, in a totally fair market you'd think that there'd be some French, German, Italian contracts but I bet if you look into it French trains are made in France, Italian trains made in Italy and German trains made in Germany.
 
Slam62 said:
isn't it Britain's last train factory or something, most of 'british' industry is owned by foreign companies now.
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As mentioned, Bombardier is Canadian, but the important thing though is that it is a factory in the UK, with employees who live and spend money in the UK, and who are more likely to buy things from other UK companies, use UK lawyers, use UK PR firms etc etc.
 
scorza said:
I'd feel the same as I do now, because I'm pretty certain it happens. Where are all the big German engineering contracts going to British firms? There's an argument that German companies are simply better than ours, which I can accept to a point, but the law of averages says we should occasionally win something. I note the article mentions Bombardier's other contracts, which are all for UK companies, in a totally fair market you'd think that there'd be some French, German, Italian contracts but I bet if you look into it French trains are made in France, Italian trains made in Italy and German trains made in Germany.
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i understand your feelings but i assume these contracts go out to tender. what the client wants is value for money and tqm to their spec. if the german company comes in cheaper and the overall cost makes sense with logistics taken into account, it's a bit of a no brainer.
 
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