Should MOD contracts stay in the UK?
THE decision to award a contract to Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering for four new Royal Navy tankers has come in for heavy criticism (Mail). In fact, no British firm put in a bid, and the Italian company Fincantieri floated the idea that it would build the vessels in the UK only after the decision had been made. The Italian bid was also hundreds of millions more than the winning bid. Of course we must protect Britain’s industrial base when building complex warships or highly sophisticated weapons, but with nonmilitary equipment, my responsibility is to get the best deal for the UK taxpayer and plough the savings back into the frontline. The choice was to buy South Korean and save hundreds of millions or let the work go to an Italian shipyard. I believe we made the right decision.
PHILIP HAMMOND MP, Defence Secretary, London SW1. PHILIP HAMMOND’S actions in allowing work that could have gone to BAE Systems (and possibly Scotland) but ended up going to South Korea highlights the problem that because all major investment decisions go through Westminster, politicians become a serious hindrance to the creation of industry in Britain. Mr Hammond and his kind are so myopic they think if it can’t be done in the South of England, it’s not worth doing in this country at all.
A. ANDERSON, Largs. ANY taxpayer concerned about the decision to buy tankers from South Korea should read Lewis Page’s book Lions, Donkeys And Dinosaurs. Most of the Mod’s spending is on equipment from BAE Systems, for example, the Typhoon, Tornado, and Jaguar aircraft, Merlin helicopters and Usells escort ships, all of which are years behind their proposed delivery and/or cost billions more than expected. Its pointless assuming it’s our duty to buy British, as taxpayers are merely footing the bill for BAE and MOD incompetence. Britain is rich enough to buy existing weapons of any kind. By using common sense, we’re getting the items required now, not in ten years’ time. There’s a danger that these deals are done to protect MPS seats, not British taxpayers’ lives.
L. ALWEY, Stanstead Abbotts, Herts. • • •