Cheap Tories care only about cost, not what’s best for Britain
We have learned today that — in spite of all the constant anti-China rhetoric from within Conservative Party ranks — contracts collectively worth up to £320million have been handed to Chinese state-backed companies for medical supplies since March.
This isn’t at all surprising, considering our lack of production capacity as a nation. And it would be unfair simply to blame the current administration; the ‘Conservative’ Party has been obsessed with cutting down costs — at the expense of value and work for Britons — for decades. (See my commentary on the Party’s decision to produce our new, ‘patriotic’ blue passport in Poland, under the supervision of a French company, here for a good recent example of this.)
It is, however, worth reproducing a comment from a Tory official which demonstrates the Party’s indifference to aiding production at home.
Chairman of the foreign affairs select committee, Tom Tugendhat — who demonstrated his conservative credentials when he threw the late Sir Roger Scruton under the bus following the shameful New Statesman affair — had the following to say regarding the handing of millions of pounds of taxpayer money to Chinese companies:
‘We need to reduce dependence on companies controlled by states that seek to use that leverage to influence our actions and those of our allies’.
I quite agree. How can we do that, Tom?
‘That means building up partnerships with others and reducing our reliance on China’s state-owned businesses’. (My emphasis.)
Ah yes, let’s just find someone else to produce PPE (and everything else, for that matter) for us. They might settle for a lower price, with any luck!
Of course, instead of this we could focus on renewing British industry; providing jobs for British workers, and returning once-working communities with a sense of pride. There is a long way to go, but a genuinely patriotic party would at least make the effort. Alas, such a party is in short supply within our shores.
The Conservative Party’s talk about ‘Buying British’, and of the opportunities Brexit provides to ‘unleash Britain’s potential’, is just that; talk. It does not care about Britain. After taking your vote based on a pledge of patriotism, it is more than happy to sell off our nation to the highest bidder. Abandon it.