Siemens vs Bombardier

Five years ago the civil servants drafting the invitation to tender failed to ensure that the work came to Derby

This View from Westminster featured the Labour MP for Derby North, Mr Chris Williamson, bemoaning the fact that the trains would be built in Germany rather than by his constituents in Derby.

The cause of the problem was that five years ago the civil servants drafting the invitation to tender failed to ensure that the work - £1bn contract - came to Derby. This would never have happened in France/Germany. This failure was allowed to happen because Mr Williamson as one of Derby's elected representatives, failed wholly and abysmally to watch over the civil servants and generally give them a hard time and ensure that the work came to his constituents.

PE can be justly proud of the impartiality of its reporting and in following this theme I feel that the article should have identified that the MP's failings caused the problem in the first place rather than on his subsequent lamentable efforts to try to retrieve the situation and the jobs of a thousand constituents.

The Germans are not going to give up on this one.

R Nix

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