Crewe Guardian Letter: Response to Labour praise for Industry-Destroying EU.

Dear Sir

Labour Councillor Kevin Hickson writing in your August 28^th edition demonstrates a total lack of understanding when he claims that the recent good news of investment in a new model at Bentley’s Crewe Plant was as a result of our membership of the EU.

If he understood anything about industry and commerce, he would know that successful companies like VW make decisions on where to invest based on the availability of relevant skills, abundance of materials and resources and a competitive tax regime, and not the whim of corporatist, undemocratic bodies like the EU.

The decision to build the new Bentley SUV in Crewe is due to the skills, hard work and diligence of the people who work there, and nothing else.

Indeed, the EU is responsible for the transfer of thousands of manufacturing jobs away from the UK. In 2005 the EU stopped a UK Government Bridging Loan of £150m to MG-Rover, bringing about its collapse at the cost of thousands of jobs. This whilst turning a blind eye to the French Government who in the last year have pumped €5bn into Peugeot-Citroen.

It is the EU which forces the UK Government to adhere to strict European Tendering Rules for public contracts which has virtually destroyed our Rail Industry. This whilst turning a blind eye to blatant protectionist public procurement in most other EU member states.

The EU provides grants (from our taxes) to companies like Twinings Tea to close their factories in the UK and relocate to Eastern Europe.

If Labour considered the effects of its blundered and ideological polices on the working people it claims to represent, a great many of them would now be in gainful employment in good jobs.

Cllr. Stuart Hutton CEng MIET (UKIP).