Bombardier Closure - Is anyone listening?

It is clear that there is a serious risk of Bombardier's plant in Derby being closed if Siemens are awarded the Thameslink contract. It is also clear now that the possibility and consequences of such a closure were not taken into account when the contract was drawn up. The government has admitted it does not have any socio-economic data about the train-building industry (which means the previous Labour government did not have any either). If Bombardier Derby closes there would be a loss of government tax revenue, an increase in social security payments (not to mention a lot of other social costs, not all of them financial). In addition, every train or tram we ever buy in the future would have to be imported, so this would have a severe and on-going impact on our already-bad balance of trade.

This begs an important question: whose job is it to take the 'high-level' view in government? Anybody's? Someone should be looking at contracts like these and balancing up the conflicting interests of different government departments and looking at the impact on tax revenue and trade figures etc. Only by having all the information at your fingertips can anyone assess what is in the National Interest. I would have thought that this should be the Treasury's role so why are they not doing it? This reflects badly on the mechanisms of government not just the policies of one particular administration. It is careless and incompetent government and to varying degrees all three major parties must share some blame. However, only one of the major parties has been in government for 13 of the past 14 years.

A couple of useful items from the Derby Telegraph can be downloaded here.

Petition to the Minister of Transport to save jobs in Derby - Please sign here

Steve Coltman, Chair, Assoc of Lib Dem Engineers & Scientists (ALDES)

14, Belvoir Drive,

Loughborough,

LE11 2SW

07792-982605