A Conservative Assembly Member from North Wales has expressed his concern and bafflement at workers being drafted in from Scotland to work on new offices for the Welsh Assembly in Llandudno.
The story has been raised in a local paper, the Weekly News, which had previously quoted a Lib Dem cabinet member of Conwy council as praising a contractor for employing local people and materials.
But according to the paper's latest report:
"The Weekly News has discovered that the steel framework is being erected by Scottish company Solway Steel, and an Alpha Crane has been brought all the way from Ayrshire to help put the components in place. A local contractor, who asked not to be named, is furious. “They have brought a telescopic crane all the way from Scotland, and the steel erectors are from Scotland,” he said."
This has prompted the following reaction from Darren Millar (pictured), who represents Clwyd West in the Assembly and is the Tories' Shadow Minister for Environment and Planning:
"This revelation is extremely embarrassing for the Assembly Government coming just days after ministers were in North Wales saying they would do everything they can to support local businesses and workers. While the Assembly Government is entitled to award contracts to firms from outside Wales, or for those firms to bring its own specialist workers with them, it is understandable that many people in the area will be angry that more is not being done to help them.
"Hundreds of jobs have been lost in North Wales since the start of the economic downturn and the construction and steel industries have been particularly hard hit. There are local firms that are more than capable of undertaking this work and they will be baffled that workers from Scotland are being drafted in at a time when every contract is crucial to their survival. People in the area want to see action from the Assembly Government to help them retain their jobs - not just words of sympathy when they lose them."
I have to say, I am not convinced by the protectionist argument and cannot get worked up about the issue here. Do we know now much the local contractor would have charged? Given that it is public money being spent, I would hope that the contract has been awarded to whomever will give the taxpayer best value for money. Shouldn't Conservatives want taxpayer value for money to be a more important consideration than the origin of materials or the workforce?
Jonathan Isaby
And does Mr Millar buy all his clothes from Welsh Tailors, buy all his food from Welsh farmers etc etc?
If not, why is it OK to deprive some Welsh industry of jobs by buying 'foreign' but not others?
This 'selective protectionism' is just incoherent crude populism.
We're all 'EU citizens' now Mr Millar, not Welsh or Scottish, and I don't see your name on the BOO list opposing such an approach, so you're just another Tory saying "we want to keep in the EU but we also want to dishonestly leverage support from local worker anger".
Posted by: GB£.com | February 13, 2009 at 13:02
So from British Jobs for British Workers to Welsh Jobs for Welsh Workers. I don't care about party lines here - this is simply an example of how stupid and parochial this line of thinking is.
What's next - Norfolk Jobs for Norfolk Workers? Slough Jobs for Slough Workers? Morningside Jobs for Morningside Workers?
Posted by: Allan McKinley | February 13, 2009 at 13:05
A surprising parochial line from a party that claims to be one supporting the Union, at least that's what they say when denying English people a voice.
Posted by: Iain | February 13, 2009 at 13:14
what an absurd argument, we really are taking the 'standing up for local people' arguments to ludicrous levels if this is where we are ending up.
Posted by: tory in cambridge | February 13, 2009 at 13:27
The party does support the Union Iain. Individuals within it are free to say whatever they think and there are pro and anti Union factions. I happen to think ~(as a Unionist) Darren Millar is wrong.
Posted by: Malcolm Dunn | February 13, 2009 at 13:31
The point that is being missed here is that the Welsh Assembly (self-styled Government) has held meetings whereby local contractors were encouraged to tender for the work. I cannot recall if there was an apparent committment to employ welsh workers and contractors but that was the extremely strong message.
Darren Millar is an extremely hard working Assembly Member and simply following up on the "promise" made by Rhodri and his acolytes.
Incidentally local papers have reported that one reason for the extreme delays in this project were specification/design changes which include bomb proof windows. The North Wales office seems a most unlikely target to me!
Posted by: John Broughton | February 13, 2009 at 13:44
Welsh jobs for Scottish workers today and Italian jobs for German workers tomorrow.
Either we are 100% in favour of freedom of movement or we are not.
Posted by: Ross Warren | February 13, 2009 at 13:58
Why is the Welsh Assembly building new offices new offices in Llandudno ?
Posted by: Man in a Shed | February 13, 2009 at 14:26
Simple, the Assembly which sits in Cardiff, South Wales need some way to keep an observing eye on North Wales and a set of offices is just the way to do it.
Posted by: Graham | February 13, 2009 at 14:41
From now on I will only be eating and wearing what I can make in my own house. No doubt my standard of living will rapidly increase due to my refusal to trade with the outside world.
Posted by: RichardJ | February 13, 2009 at 15:37
This needs to be nipped in the bud. The workers of all four parts of the United Kingdom rose as one. For one they are.
Posted by: David Lindsay | February 13, 2009 at 17:23
"This needs to be nipped in the bud. The workers of all four parts of the United Kingdom rose as one. For one they are."
Gawd, what dreamy,whistful, clownish ignorance.
They were once David but are no longer.Time to get to grips with recent and ongoing reality. The 1998 Scotland Act and the Welsh Assembly act brought an end to the formerly unified state of the United Kingdom
(always partly federal actually).
Devolved parliaments compete with the British parliament for power and money. Its a fact.
In Scotland there is an "understanding" that contractors should use labour from within 40 miles of the site. It works. They look after their own and make sure it happens. I quite agree with Darren Millar. Local labour and contractors should have been used. Nothing like the virtuous circle of local economy.
It is only a closed mind, force fed on aeons of self defeating overblown free movement of labour/free trade doctrinaire garbage that could not see this. It is how most of the world operates if you want to know, though many of them whistle the free trade tune if it helps them.
In the meantime, it is principally England, thrown wide open to the callous indifference and targeted viciousness of the residual latter day British state that must put up with this neglect-disguised-as-principal.
Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, apart from having their own administrations dedicated and responsible to their own people, also have the Barnett Rules which are a massive method of indirect employemnt protection.
Hadn't you noticed. I see Cameron is keping quiet about the Barnett-Rules-as-employment-protection.
Posted by: Jake | February 13, 2009 at 18:04
For Gods sake this workers protectionism is pathetic. Companies bid for contracts and its a free choice. Just because you are rejected doesnt mean that its personal. They have criteria to judge against and they make a choice.
We all knew at the time and we all said at the time that British jobs for British workers as a policy was bunkum and unapplicable.
Posted by: James Maskell | February 14, 2009 at 09:21
Darren does it again!
Could he please give an examble of a Welsh steel fabricating company that gave a competitive tender and lost for this particualr, specialst piece of work?
Darren is so busy for bandwagons to jump on he often fails to see the wider picture and issues of the day.
Posted by: Oscar | February 14, 2009 at 11:29
What i meant to type was that Darren is so busy looking for bandwagons to jump upon , he often fails to see the wider picture.
He has never really made the transition from being a local councillor to being a fully fledged member of the ARSEmbly.
Just as well that few people in North Wales take the said ARSEmbly seriously.
Talk of him trying to oust Mr Bourne are seriously exagerated, not least due to the boy Millar not being up tpo it!!
Posted by: oscar | February 14, 2009 at 11:46
Can you imagine David Jones MP committing such a faux pas?
No of course not.
Trouble for David though is that some might tar him with the same brush as this little P... as they both represent Clwyd West.
And David deserves better than him as a counterpart in the asrembly as the above poster call it!
nice one!
Posted by: Rick | February 14, 2009 at 19:10
Without a doubt, if this had been English workers complaining, then Brown, Mandelson, Clark and Cameron would be screaming "Racists," from the rooftops.
The Scots needn't worry. They have a 40 mile protection zone in place for Scottish workers. Brown knows, but then he did sign the Scottish Claim of Right, didn't he? Yet he's ruling over England - doesn't add up, does it?
Posted by: Helen Wright | February 15, 2009 at 01:29
Trouble with mr Millar is that he is not a team player.
Pretty hard to get over that one in politics I would have thought.
Posted by: Gwen | February 15, 2009 at 08:32