British Jobs for British Workers?

As I posted last week, Geoff Hoon is one of the most disingenuous and hypocritical New Labour ministers. There is some considerable competition in the cabinet for that sobriquet. Once again he has excelled as Secretary of State for Transport in a wonderful New Labour hypocritical charade.

Only a week after the stikes at the Lindsey refinery ended and after Gordon Brown had promised both the trade unions and others more jobs in the UK, and only two days after the Minister for Employment, Tony Mc Nulty, had stated on Newsnight that the government was doing everything possible to create new jobs and reduce rapidly rising unemployment, it has been revealed that a major contract for building a new inter city train has been awarded to Japan. The project which costs £1.35 billion has been lost by the UK economy.

Agility Trains, a consortium led by the Japanese manufacturer Hitachi, was handed the contract in favour of the rival Express Rail Alliance consortium led by the Canadian manufacturer, Bombardier. But had the contract gone to Bombardier, which already has a large train-manufacturing base in the UK, at least an extra £1.35bn – or 18 per cent of the value of the contract – would have stayed in the UK, safeguarding the jobs of its largely British suppliers.
Hitachi said all of the first 10 trains, some 70 vehicles, will be made in Japan, and the outer shells and parts of the undercarriage of the remaining 1,330 trains will continue to be fabricated in Japan. A spokesman for the Department of Transport said they would not comment on the rival bids.

Hoon tried to claim that 12,500 jobs would be created in the UK but Lord Adonis, the Transport Minister, later admitted that only 2,500 new jobs would be created and not all of them in the UK.

Bob Crow, the general secretary of the rail industry union the RMT, said the announcement was a "triumph of spin over substance". He went on: "We need to know why the order was not placed with Bombardier, which has established train-building capacity and a skilled workforce in Derby.."
Bob Laxton, the Labour MP for Derby North, said: "This is a crass decision which gives the Japanese an opportunity of getting into the UK market. I don't believe for one moment the figure of 12,500 jobs because work will be brought into the United Kingdom from overseas."

It goes against all of the principles of the Green New Deal laid out by the Green Party as part of its alternative economic strategy. It is also simply astonishing that at a time of rising unemployment and after countless promises to stimulate the economy that such a decision should be taken. Furthermore, it is a major slap in the face for the TUC and those unions still affiliated to the Labour Party. It demonstrates quite clearly that the Labour government is still wedded to the dead hand of the market, which has already devastated the UK economy.

Thousands of jobs could have been created in Derby and elsewhere and with the move towards more and sustainable rail travel, this would have been a golden opportunity to support a project which is both green and regenerative. It gives the lie to all Gordon Brown's spin about "British jobs" etc. I am sure that the unemployed of Derby and elsewhere will welcome the government's decision with open arms. The next time any trade unionist refers to Labour as the party of jobs and public spending this should be pointed out to them.

Another present from the party which brought you PFI, privatisation of the NHS and Metronet collapse.