Bombardier

In the heart of Derbyshire there is an enterprise cluster centered around transport manufacturing. Toyota in the north and Bombardier in the south. Now these two companies obviously are both transport engineering companies, one makes cars and one makes trains. But they are also both owned by non-british companies.

Now I am a Networks engineer by trade, but my degree is in Computer Networks and Enterprise Management. Now my business brain tells me that when you go out to tender, you produce the best deal for the best price and you get the contract, right? So my initial reaction is, "Obviously, Bombardier didnt cut the mustard...?" But, quite understandably so, the people of Derby are not satisfied with this.

My political brain says "Who set this deal up and who agreed to the EU regulations on procurrment?" The answer is, once again, New labour.

But I have no wish to sound like a stuck record on this, so I feel the "It was like that when we got here" reflex is no longer good enough. Although as a conservative my initial feeling is that behind every bad decision that the coalition government has been forced to make is a labour minister of state. If it is a defence problem, it is more often than not Geoff Hoon's problem. If it is a transport problem, it is more often than not Geoff Hoon's problem. If it is a business problem then it is probably down to Lord Mandleson.

I was at a dinner event last week, where our ever controversial MEP, Roger Helmer proclaimed "We in Britain play Cricket". This handy metaphor for playing by the rules is so true. Which leads me to beleive that if we were to leave the common market that we know as the European Union we would all be in a much better position all around.

However obviously the 1200 jobs that Bombardier were going to shed in October anyway is no argument for not supporting british industry. I fully support the Derbyshire MP's that are liaisng with the secretary of state and the prime minister to come to a solution.