British Jobs for British Workers

[rov1100]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17127488

Once again the government has chosen a foreign firm over a British one to build some ships. Should price mean everything?

[EDDIE51]

There is nowhere in the UK that could build a ship that size so it is impossible to give the work to UK

[rov1100]

Well they were in the tendering process

[douglas9401]

On Radio 4 a few minutes ago, no British bidders completed the tendering procedure.
Maybe lost down the back of a couch somewhere?

[rojash]

The main advantage will be that as the ships are being built by Daewoo, spare parts will be readily available from Halfords.

[mightyWBA]

As somebody who has worked in manufacturing for 28 years now, this type of news really annoys me.
Can't think of any other countries that continually kick themselves in the nuts.
Even the tickets for the Olympics are being printed in the USA.
Very sad.

[mightyWBA]

Exactly Bill..Shipbuilding is us one of many industries that created wealth for our country,now they're nearly all gone.
We don't make anything anymore,recently a contract to replace trains was given to the Germans instead of a company in Derby,another few thousand jobs lost.
It's about time we put ourselves first.

We'll all be working in supermarkets one day.

[jno]

the British are second to none when it comes to buying the cheapest goods available, so I imagine British consumers' wishes drive lowest-cost production choices. (Not necessarily ships.)

[Gromit]

No British firm made a bid. How could they choose one if none were on the table. Margaret Thatcher seriously crippled UK ship building (and most heavy industry) and it has never really recovered. We now have all our eggs in one basket (financial service industry) which is why we have ended up having to borrow hundreds of £billions to stop the whole house of cards collapsing.

[EDDIE51]

There is a lot of British content, the design was British and most of the equipment is British, they will be fitted out and customised in Britain .
There are quite simply no deep water shipbuilding facilities in the UK.
We can built world class pleasure boats and yachts but we have nowhere to build and launch ocean going ships. As far as I know there is nowhere in Europe apart from Russia that could build such a large ship.

[DTCwordfan]

38000 tonnes isn't large - surely Barrow-in-Furness....?

[EDDIE51]

38,000 tonnes is too large for any current yard in UK , even 1/2 that is too large. We lost the capacity years ago.
Remember the Koreans work for around £250 per man per month ! there is the labour cost as well !

[youngmafbog]

// Margaret Thatcher crippled British heavy industry//

No she didnt, it was not viable because Union power made investment into this country a folly. She had the balls to shut it.

And, if it is such a good idea, why didnt Noo labour invest in it instead of hundreds of thousands of (800k +) of unecesary civil servants usually busy bodies who actually stood in the way of business growth and were detrimental to the GDP rather than help it.