Bombardier - Round Two

I was in Derby at the weekend and came across a number of people under the 'Socialist Worker' banner.
They were trying to address the Bombardier situation in a couple of ways. (For history, please see http://scepticalcurmudgeon.blogspot.com/2011/07/bombardier-saga.html)

The first was to ask people to sign a petition to the government to save the jobs at Bombardier.

 I have no idea why they feel another petition will achieve any more than those that have gone before but if they wish to spend their time this way that is their choice.  Furthermore we have seen from petitions to both the present govenrment and previous governments that they are frequently ignored.  I remember signing the online 'e-petition' for a number of causes, some of which I had replies to telling me I was wrong and the government was right, others have simply been ignored.  That is democracy for you.

The second approach was to demand that the government nationalise Bombardier.

Bombardier in the UK is ultimately a division of a Canadian group of companies. 

Therefore if we wished to nationalise it we would first of all have to buy the company from it's parent company.  I have no idea how much this would cost but given that our government has a massive debt to address I very much doubt that buying the UK arm of Bombardier would be viable.

Let us assume that the UK does buy Bombardier and nationalise it - then what?  We will own a company that still doesn't have the ThamesLink contract and therefore we could still not save the jobs that at present are to be lost.  All we have gained is more debt, more risk.  Look at the banks that we the taxpayer own - not a pretty sight.

I suspect that 'Socialist Worker' are then proposing that all contracts for rail are awarded in future to National Bombardier or whatever they call them.  This would be in breach of so many rules that I believe it could not be done.

This approach could be adopted by other countries, so all those that buy from UK companies are instructed to buy from their own national companies - so Rolls Royce as a local example would lose a lot of work as theur aero engines are supplied to many airlines across the world, including a number of countries which do produce their own engines.  BAE systems is another one, they supply many international markets and if they lost that work then they too would be at risk of even greater job losses.

Apparently Bombardier have already been invited to tender for the upgrade of Cross Country Trains rolling stock but they don't believe they can do the work in Derby, or possibly the UK at all, as they don't have the necessary machinery or expertise.  So just giving the company contracts may still not achieve anything.

I feel for those at Bombardier that are to lose their jobs but unfortunately it seems that many people are proposing solutions which are not fully thought out and are clearly flawed.