I read with interest the current ScotRail case whereby union members are insisting that the Scottish Government awards the contract to build 120 new carriages to Bombardier, a UK company based in Derby that has many of its suppliers based in Scotland.
The other main company vying for the contract is Siemens, a German company which builds trains in Czech Republic.
I am not so blinkered that I think we have to close our shores and look after our own no questions asked. Globalisation is here and if we don't embrace it with smart importing and exporting then we truly will be the Eastern Bloc, dependant-style country that many already see us as.
But for this instance, unless there is a wide difference in terms of cost or quality, then I don't see there being much problem with the contract going to the UK company. And for those who see England as just as foreign as Czech Republic, the fact that Scottish companies supply Bombardier should appeal to their nationalistic reasoning.
I suspect inside of the European Union we can't just blindly award contracts inside our own borders every time. Anti-competition rules may well come into it but still, the logic that has the French public buying Peugeot and Citroen almost exclusively should be applied here.
I hope to see Bombardier awarded this contract. And if they are not, it will be interesting to see why not...
4 comments:
We've been through this so many times. I know it's hard but if you follow this path you inevitably end up making useless British Leyland cars that nobody wants to buy which the taxpayer subsidises to the limit. (This is especially true of the arms trade with its massive tax subsidies)
I for one have had more than enough of subsisising English factories at the ultimate cost of Scottish ones.
Nonsense, bring back Ravenscraig!!
(You do, of course, make a very good point Rab.)
It would be interesting to see what the price differential is between the two companies. The UK can't trade on 'quality' alone against much cheaper foreign products.
I suspect if the contract goes abroad it will simply be down to the cost and the fact that EU procurement rules have to be followed.
At the end of the day most people look to get whatever product they buy at the best possible price, and that means getting a balance between price and quality.
If you buy tomatoes (for instance) you probably won't go for mouldy ones just because they're cheap but nor will you buy the most succulent looking if they cost £5 each (well, not unless you've more money than sense).
The same goes here. The government/First Scotrail have a certain amount of money to spend. If they can get these carriages at a cheaper price then that's a saving which can be used elsewhere e.g. more services, cheaper fares, etc.
Now I know the flipside of this is based on knock-on consequences. If we send this contract abroad it'll save some money but there might be more people unemployed, meaning more benefits getting paid out (and assorted other problems) and eventually there's no real saving.
The problem is how you pick and choose the issues where you have to spend more for a similar product e.g. why just public sector contracts, why not private contracts for clothing instead of going to China, etc?
Ultimately are people really prepared to go against every instinct they normally have when making purchases?
p.s. And I promise no more posts about tomatoes!
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