mkpdavies

http://www.greenocktelegraph.co.uk/r...ry.php?id=6245

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BASILDON BOY

Hoorah and well done for this publicity - this is the very sort of story we should be leading with if UKIP decide to fight Livingston.

Congratulations to UKIP Scotland

Anthony Butcher

This, in theory, does work both ways though. European organisations are forced to allow bidding from British companies for their orders as well.

Whether this happens in practice is another matter. Do other European nations complain about being forced to allow foreign bidders? Do they stick to the rules?

Does our business gain overall from this system of open bidding? This is a job for the research groups!

Well done for getting some publicity and highlighting the issue though. I imagine that many people are still unaware that we no longer control our bidding system.

Roger Gough

That UKIP members were outside a shipyard demonstrating against the EU and obtained publicity in the local rag with no mention of SNP is a coup. Power to your elbow Scottish Chairman Peter Neilson - but what could we have achieved with Doug Denny there? :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: !!

mkpdavies

Doug did actually appologise, even if he is getting a bit paranoid about us accusing his mates of wickedness.

I think we got off on the wrong foot. Let's walk back INTO phpbb_the room and pretend "that thread" didn't happen.

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Richard

At least we now know how to approach one another!

Mark Croucher

Yes, it does work the other way round too.

Of course, the further east you go, the lower wages become, so it is difficult to imagine a British ship building company being able to beat a Polish one on price. Just wait until everything is stamped 'Made in Turkey'

Rgds

Mark

UkipScot

The idea that an SNP led Executive would better defend Scotland`s interests in the EU is a baseless assertion given both SNP policy and their track record in the European Parliament.
If Scotland indeed had its own place in Europe,she would be represented by a Commissioner;an SNP political appointee responsible only to his fellow Commissioners,unelected and accountable to no-one. Given the innate sense of superiority requisite for such a post, Alex Salmond would be the obvious candidate.
Do the SNP really expect us to be taken in by the notion that Commissioner Salmond and First Minister Sturgeon would succeed where Heath,Thatcher,Major and Blair have all failed?
An SNP Executive would be overruled and overridden just as easily by the Brussels Commission on which Scotland`s Commissioner would theoretically sit. Misrepresentation of the facts to suit a self-interested objective is the stock in trade of such professional politicians.
For, with typical duplicity, the SNP continues to wrap itelf in the Saltire and weeps crocodile tears in public for Scotland`s unjust sufferings at the hands of her English Oppressors, all the while privately scheming to sell us out to the European Imperialists at the first opportunity.
Fergusons is such a case in point.
Complaining of "betrayal", Nicola Sturgeon has rounded on the First Minister, declaring that: "It is an absolute disgrace that a Scottish company now faces closure due to Jack McConnell's indifference… This tendering process has been a shambles from the start and now the workers at Ferguson's and their families will suffer as a direct result of the First Minister's failure to protect Scottish interests."
What Miss Sturgeon doesn't seem to realise is that the situation is one largely of her own party's making, a combination of its blind pursuit of Scottish devolution and its love of the European Union.
If she looked over the border, she would realise that the Royal Navy has just procured three brand new FPVs which were ordered from the Vosper Thornycroft shipyard in Southampton without any problems.
The difference is that, waters off England and Wales are patrolled by the Royal Navy on behalf of Defra, but the vessels used are classified as "offshore patrol vessels" and are therefore tasked for defence duties in addition to fisheries protection. As such, they are exempt (for the time being) from the procurement directive, and the MoD was free to purchase from British yards without opening up the procurement competition to European ship builders.
However, since devolution, fisheries protection in Scottish waters has been transferred to the Scottish Fisheries Protection Agency. As a civilian agency, this is entirely independent of the Royal Navy and has no defence tasks. As such, its purchases are subject to EU procurement rules and, when the agency needed another vessel, the Scottish Executive had no choice but to put the tender out to European bidders.
Additionally the Executive has awarded the Remontowa yard a contract to build a Caledonian MacBrayne ferry, which will ply between the Scottish islands, and that would not under any circumstances have been exempt from the procurement directive.
Either way, the SNP has been caught out. In its enthusiasm for an "Independent Scotland in Europe", it has lost out both ways. Now, as Scottish ship workers are consigned to the dole, it doesn't even seem to realise that its own policies have helped to bring this situation about.
Myself and other members of UKIPScotland travelled to Port Glasgow to show support for the workers threatened with redundancy. To date I can find no mention of a similar visit by our political opponents, an action which speaks far louder than their hollow words.
Also, I managed to highlight the yard`s plight during my appearance in the audience on Radio 4`s "Straw Poll" broadcast 12/08/05
The last shipyard of it`s kind from a century of "Clyde Built" has been betrayed not merely by the current incompetent Executive but by the entire Scottish Political Establishment, both in Brussels and Holyrood

Roger Gough

Matt - my intention was to promote Doug's 'bulldog' approach. He would probably have bitten a few ankles before declaring victory. I'd rather be with him than agin' him. - and what thread are you talking about? :wink:

Paul Birch

The wages are lower because the productivity is lower, and the productivity is lower because there has been less capital investment. Since we aren't even in the euro-zone, and have a free floating currency, there is no reason to suppose that poorer Poland must have a comparative advantage in ship-building. If it does, there will be some other area in which we have the comparative advantage.