[urlhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17127488[/url



The government has yet again not backed UK industry and bought foreign ships for service with the fleet for the first time. They prefer spending money paying out benefits then supporting our manufacturing base. They will have to spend a fortune adapting the ships before they enter service and I doubt they will be as useful as the ship they are due to replace.

Bit harsh to be blaming the Government, when not a single UK firm submitted a final tender for the build contract.

Don't spoil it for him.

Wonder why they didn't submit a final tender? Couldn't be that the rules were changed and fixed in such a way as to make it impossible for them to do so, could it???



This surely couldn't happen with this scratch the backs of your pals government, whilst you are in power???

We don't know. Well, I don't. I haven't read that anywhere so are there any grounds to think this?

You do know how tight and complex procurement rules are, don..hang on, you clearly don't.

Aren't the Koreans the world's biggest ship builders - by a considerable margin?

Maybe they realised that the fact that Korea was being allowed to tender it was not worth the millions involved in these processes only to suffer the inevitable defeat.



I suppose they could have negotiated with the unions to pay £50 a month, put the workers up in large factory bunk houses and feed them slop on the job.

They are indeed. Although many of their ships are of generic design, almost allowing the Korean's to mass produce ships. I always found that European built vessels and in particular those from Germany, Holland and Finland to be of the highest quality.



You still find that many of the most specialist and unique vessels designed and conceived, are still built here in Europe.



European built still holds a credence of superior quality in most of the world. Particularly when it comes to marine engineering.

Here's an idea. Stop spending billions on Iraq, Afghanistan etc and instead spend the money on paying UK wages to shipbuilders on the Clyde or the Tyne. Sure it will cost a lot more than Korean prices, but every penny stays in the UK, creates a whole bunch of employment and generates a decent tax/NI rake.



Am I missing something?

Nothing other at the moment, than a tingling feeling up my spine.

I actually do know a little bit about them and have had a reasonable amount of experience over the years.

On paper, the process is clear, watertight with many built in checks and balances. However, there's always interpretation, very often from the vested interests. I'd just say, if you were starting your own business and decided to tender, based purely on the procurement rules, I don't care how good your bid is, you wouldn't stand a chance.