Laurence Dollimore
THE decision to hand Spain a €165m deal to build steel parts for Britain’s taxpayer-funded wind farms has sparked outrage.
Scottish Power, which is owned by Spanish giant Iberdrola, has awarded the lucrative building contracts to a shipyard in Spain which is owned by the Spanish government.
Critics say it flies in the face of the UK Government’s strategy to support British jobs and the decision has caused a crisis at Newcastle-based OGN Group which had hoped to secure the investment and 2,000 jobs.
Mary Glindon, Labour MP for North Tyneside, said: “If the Government wants to ensure work comes to British workers they have to take a stronger line with these companies.
“Why should the British taxpayer give money to support companies unless there’s some material benefit to the UK? It’s not international aid, it’s business.”
Scottish Power will receive millions in taxpayer-funded subsidies over the 15-year project, which will see the creation of a wind farm in East Anglia.
OGN is asking the Government to deliver on its promise to support British business and the Northern Powerhouse.
Scottish Power said it awarded the contract based on Spanish company Navantia’s technical and economic competitiveness.
A spokesman added: “We are working with a range of UK suppliers and supporting major investment in UK infrastructure.
“It is not possible to award contracts to every UK company which tenders, especially if bids for contracts are not competitive.”
If the UK government was as smart as some European countries they would buy huge stakes in companies to stop them sending contracts abroad. Trouble is UK politicians are bone idle and stupid.
Add to that, fatally addicted to financial manipulations on an international scale (fiddling) instead of manufacturing linked to international trade. Because potential organised labour, stemming from manufacture, is anathema to the One Percenters.
No, in other EU countries it simply would’nt be allowed, I’m thinking Germany and France.
Stuart, for Germany your assumption is wrong. We have a lot of wind farms built i.e. by Danish companies.
As Germany is one of the largest suppliers of wind technolgy worldwide, we would be stupid if we prevent competitors from other countries to win contracts in Germany. For Germany this is a clear win-win situation and an incentive to steadily improve the quality of our wind technologies. Especially as Scottish Power is owned by Iberdrola, there is no legal reason to instruct Iberdrola which company they have to engage for the construction of their windparks.
If the British windpark operators decide only to buy British, the British wind turbine industry soon will end up like the British carmakers. EU and Chinese wind supply companies will like this result very much indeed.
how can any one possibly even compare the Spanish with the British, on anything……we Brits are far superior…….there will of course be some corruption involved here, there has to be if the Spanish are involved
Just today I saw on the business news that Germany will not allow a German company to be sold to the Chinese. Wolfgang – who owns the railways and utilities in Germany – I’ll tell you – German companies or the German State. There are many traitors in the UK and the solution is very simple but the Brits are too servile and frightened to do anything.
The public schoolboys who are mainy as thick as the proverbial ruined the UK car industry but tried very hard to blame it all on the unions – only idiots with half a brain believe that.
The trouble Stuart is that many in “power” have non-British interests. Their hearts are not in Britain and they don’t care what happens. A lot are Indians, Pakistani’s, West Indians. They may be integrated but don’t have the nation in their hearts. Like one of our older politicians said – we should ask which cricket team they support when India is playing England.
Look at the newspapers in the UK. Why do they always bash Britain and British sportsmen. Because they are Australians etc. so have an axe to grind.
That is the contradiction of ‘democratic pluralism’ which western democratic countries face. Middle eastern and Asian economies aren’t faced with dilemma of ‘free trade’: Those countries just block foreign attempts to control or influence important national enterprises. While there is some attempt at true reciprocal agreements, these have not been enforced, as Stuart states.
Strong whiff of racism there Bluemoon. If you want to apportion blame for selling England by the pound, you need to go back to the Witch Thatcher and her crony Reagan who made it all possible with their “Bonfire of Regulations”.
If you want reasonable newspapers, check The Guardian and Morning Star/Daily Worker, (if you can bear a different take on the world other than that spewed out by the Mail and Murdoch press)