“Where was Chris Williamson when the last Labour government gave a £7.5billion contract to Hitachi? Labour said that Bombardier could still bid for the Thameslink contract. I do not recall any campaign by Chris Williamson when they gave the biggest contract to Japan.

Pauline Latham has been a City Councillor for years, now and an MP she is standing up against her own government, this is something that any politician who genuinely puts constituents interests before political interests would do. Meanwhile our Council Leader (Philip Hickson) is demanding a response from David Cameron on this issue. Not only that, but City Council Leader, Philip Hickson has been to Bombardier's European HQ with a business delegation from Derby:

"City council leader Philip Hickson said it was now clear that the Government had two months in which to save the UK's train-making industry and that only urgent action could prevent the potential closure of Litchurch Lane following the Department of Transport's decision to award Thameslink to German firm Siemens.

"We have always believed that this decision was fundamentally wrong. The Government needs to review it and reverse it and it needs to do it now," he said".
http://tinyurl.com/6kzw2q9
Where are our Labour Councillors? Come on this is a time when all political parties should join together to persuade the Government to change its direction on this deal. It is also a question as to whether we should remain in Europe. Derby has been making trains since 1837 and we have been selling locomotives and rolling stock to railways around the world for over a century. Derby is a centre for Rail, Road and Air transport, we make trains, boats, planes and cars, and we should do everything we can to hod onto these industries.”

“There seems to be some confusion about EU procurement rules (even among politicians!).

They are largely procedural; the rules say what must be done, when, where, timescales, etc. However, tender evaluation criteria is the responsibility of whoever is carrying out the procurement exercise.

In this instance, the evaluation criteria was established by the last government. But at any time since the last election Philip Hammond could have changed the criteria; that is a fact.

How do I know that? Because it says so in the invitation to tender (which is archived on the Department for Transport's website).

For Hammond, Vince Cable, and the Prime Minister to say that "it's not our fault - blame the last government" is outrageous; I guess it just shows the contempt with which they treat us, the electorate.

For those not familiar with EU procurement rules, there are two types; one is for use by government/government departments/etc, and the other for utilities (which include railways). The government has made great play on the fact that they have undertaken this exercise, have selected the preferred bidder, have done the best job for British taxpayers, etc., and therefore I would expect this exercise to have been carried out in accordance with the rules applicable to governments; but this is not the case. The Department for Transport has used the utility rules; I believe this is wrong.

Is there a case, therefore, for a Judicial Review of this exercise?

Moreover, did the Department of Transport recently select Hitachi in preference to Bombardier for another major contract using the same rules? And if it is in order for government departments to use the utility rules in certain circumstances, why did they even consider Hitachi at the expense of British manufacturers when they are not under any obligation so to do?

So, in summary, EU procurement rules are not to blame for the contract being awarded to Siemens in preference to Bombardier; moreover, the responsibility for this decision rests squarely with the present government, even though the exercise was started by the previous government, for they could have changed the evaluation criteria at any time since May, 2010.

Finally, even though a tendering exercise has been carried out, the government were not under any obligation to award a contract for the Thameslink trains at this time; that's also in the invitation to tender. If Hammond was unhappy with the tendering exercise, he could have cancelled it and started again; he has claimed this would have delayed the project by five years, but as the organisation which some describe has highly inefficient - British Rail - managed to procure trains in months, how realistic is his claim?”

“Downing St may not be answering emails on this topic - but keep them piling up. Cameron can reconsider - to the benefit of our local economy.
And how long is the new national rail academy going to last in Derby without a manufacturing industry?”

“How come the only MP who is lobbying hard on this is Chris Williamson? Everyone else is mumbling their sympathies but not actually doing much. I guess they must be all in holiday mood and spending their time picking out some hanging baskets at the local garden centre....”

“Because we don't know the details of the tendering exercise, including the criteria on which Siemens were awarded preferred status, it is difficult to know whether Bombardier could themselves have been more competitive in their bid.
What most irks me though is, typically, Government Ministers are spending more time trying to defend the decision that has been taken, rather than looking at ways in which it might be reviewed; no doubt briefed by the same civil servants who oversaw the bidding process in the first place who, in my experience, will be more concerned about protecting their own back-sides on the decisions taken than doing the right thing.”

“The parameters were set so that the lowest bid wins. I'm not saying that's right as obviously there is a wider cost implication for jobs lost, but to say that these rules "will always discriminate against a British workforce" is just incorrect.

The truth is that the Tories could have and should have reviewed the procurement process and added a clause to consider the 'socio-economic impact' as it the case for such contracts in France and Germany. That would have given them the legal footing to select Bombardier, if that's what they intended.

As for Pauline Latham, she's only worried about her re-election prospects. She obviously didnt shout loud enough before this decision was made.

It will be interesting to see how Siemens' final bill for these trains turns out when compared to Bombardier's bid. I can see contract variations aplenty...”

“Let us not forget that it was Labour who gave the last big rail contract (worth £7.5billion)to Japan in 2009 and dumped Bombardier's bid due to what they claimed were European Procurement rules. It now turns out that Labour set the parameters of these rules which will always discriminate against a British workforce being selected for any of these government contracts. Labour have shown contempt for the British work-force and the Conservatives have shown that they are inept and incapable of reversing the decisions made by the previous government.
Pauline Latham is right in going against the decision, I believe Margaret Beckett did the same thing in 2009, but was just as ineffective.”

“Do not send any responses to the DET. Respond to 10 Downing Street direct. We need to put the pressure on Cam - Moron and not let off steam to people who already know the facts. We need to let this Government know that what they have done is morally wrong. We need to let these faceless morons live by their decision and by doing so get them out of work and get someone in who knows what they are doing (And I am certainly not referring to the last government who were possible the worst goverment we ever had....this lot not far behind!!). The civil servants who worked on this need shooting. The Governmet Ministers who delivered the decision need hanging......Simple.This is so wrong. Come on people of Derby.....lets all work togehter to get this decision overturned...We can't stand by and let this happen.”

“Our industries have been disappearing for the last 30 years and most of it under a Tory Governments.The Torys have never been for the workers,never will be,they favour small businesses its easier to collect tax's from them, and easier to screw the owners.
The Torys once in power think like a dictator, and act as leaders.”