Giving the gold away… (Rail)

I have just read the news that air-sea rescue services in the UK have been contracted out. Apart from the apparent lunacy of sub-contracting yet another service, this news is accompanied by the revelation that the said contract has been awarded to an American company.

Further details reveal that the new helicopters to be used during the contract will be built in the UK (in Yoevil), but the ownership is in the USA, so, any profits will go to America.

And it's yet another example of the UK governments constant short-termist policies. And when I say government I don't just mean Mr Cameron's lot. No, I include Brown, Blair and Major in the indictment. Thatcher knew what she was doing when she destroyed British industry, the rest of those that followed that I have just mentioned have either not been clever enough, visionary enough or only interested in their 5 year terms to not worry too much about the state of British industry in years to come.

Also, it has to be said and in fairness to those mentioned earlier I suppose, that for a while it did seem that there was something in the notion that Britain would be able to earn a bob or two by maintaining service industries.

Trouble is, an awful lot of those have gone abroad to the lowest bidder... Sorry, highest bidder!

And now it's air-sea rescue. With the armed services being pared back to the barest of bones, they are no longer in any fit state to afford new helicopters or assign staff to fly them, so it's all being privatised.

The American thing really grates with this correspondent. There's nothing left in UK now. Trains are built and bought from Spain, Germany, Japan and USA. Rail operators are Dutch and German. Our motor manufacturers are owned by Germans and Indians.

All the money, all the profit is going out of the country. Can any one in government please explain to me how we are ever again going to make any money here in the UK?

Don't know if any of you ever watch Great British Railway Journeys with Michael Portilo? It really is a very good TV program and takes us into some of Britains past. A past where whole towns and cities grew and prospered by manufacturing goods that were exported around the world.

We now live in an age where those same goods are imported. It's a sad truth, but Britain doesn't work anymore because it can't. And awarding yet more contracts overseas does not improve that situation at all.

BBC News: Bristow Group to take over UK search and rescue from RAF...