How 12500 new British jobs is actually just 500.
Much of the media seemed to fall for the Department for Transport’s PR this morning.
‘Super express’ trains contract gives boost to British jobs said the Guardian.
The Daily Mail said: Government buys British for intercity train fleet
The Telegraph seemed to fall hook, line and sinker: Next generation of Intercity trains to be built in Britain they said.
The only trouble is, none of those headlines appear to be entirely accurate.
They all stemmed from the DfT’s confident announcement that ‘This will create or safeguard some 12,500 manufacturing jobs in these regions [of the UK].’
But as the day’s gone on, that number’s begun to look like a big ball of spin.
The 12,500 appears to include maintenance workers, who could hardly have found their jobs offshored! “Safeguarding”, here, seems like an exaggeration.
Hitachi, part of the winning consortium, issued a UK press release that goes along with the DfT’s version of events. But they also issued a global press release, which has a different version.
Rather than 12,500 manufacturing jobs, as stated by the DfT, Hitachi promise their shareholders the deal will “secure up to 12,500 direct and indirect jobs in the local supply and services industry and local supporting communities.” It doesn’t say create, and doesn’t say manufacturing. “Local supporting communities” could mean Joyce who works in the nearby corner shop.
What’s more, it appears the trains will be designed and, largely, constructed in Japan. Only the final assembly and some basic manufacturing will be done in Britain.
Transport Briefing says just 500 manufacturing jobs will be created here in Britain. I’ll repeat that again: Five Hundred.
It appears that of the Department for Transport’s headline figure, just 2.5% are new jobs.
Why does all of this matter? Well, there was another bid for the £7.5bn tender from Bombardier, who are based in Derby and would have designed and constructed the trains in Britain.
I’m not a protectionist, but the spin coming out of the DfT today has been particularly effective, and particularly deceitful. Slowly the media’s realising they’ve been had.
Edit: The BBC just beat me to it on the spin story.