{"id":6937,"date":"2015-11-24T17:36:53","date_gmt":"2015-11-24T17:36:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=6937"},"modified":"2015-11-24T17:36:53","modified_gmt":"2015-11-24T17:36:53","slug":"laying-waste-to-defence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=6937","title":{"rendered":"Laying waste to defence"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

More questions than answers arose yesterday (November 24), after the government announced the publication of its Strategic Defence Review, which outlined defence spending priorities for the next five years.<\/p>\n

 
\nIn a blow to British shipbuilding on the Clyde, the government turned its back on its commitment to order the manufacture of 13 Type-26 frigates at BAE Systems\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Govan and Scotstoun yards, reducing the number to eight.<\/p>\n

 
\nInstead, Prime Minister David Cameron noted, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bwe will design and build a new class of light, flexible general purpose frigates. These will be more affordable than the Type 26.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nThe announcement prompted Unite to call for \u00e2\u20ac\u015bcast iron\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 guarantees from the government that these new, lighter vessels would be built on the Clyde with supply chain contracts from UK producers.<\/p>\n

 
\nUnite Scottish secretary Pat Rafferty called the Type-26 frigate manufacturing cut \u00e2\u20ac\u015bdeeply disappointing\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bGeorge Osborne needs to give cast iron assurances in the comprehensive spending review that the five new class naval vessels outlined in the defence review will be built on the Clyde,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said.<\/p>\n

 
\n“We must protect our vital defence manufacturing skills and the UK’s sovereign capability to build the complex warships the government aims to deploy,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Rafferty added. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bTo fail to do this makes a mockery of the efforts to boost national security.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nRafferty went on to say that spending and defence reviews were a \u00e2\u20ac\u015btremendous opportunity to put orders onto the books of our struggling foundation industries.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bOur steel industry is in crisis,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWithout government action now to save that industry it may not be around to compete for contracts when the orders are placed.<\/p>\n

 
\n“Never again should we be placed in the position of using Swedish steel to build UK warships,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Rafferty added. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThere are too many grey areas in the government’s procurement to support national defence \u00e2\u20ac\u201c it needs to fill these gaps now.”<\/p>\n

 
\nDefence communities are also reeling from the announcement in the Defence Review that 12,000 civilian jobs would be slashed by 2020.<\/p>\n

 
\nDamaging effect<\/strong><\/em>
\nUnite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s national officer for Ministry of Defence workers Mike McCartney noted that the jobs cull will have a profoundly damaging effect on communities beyond the MoD jobs themselves.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t just be those employed by the Ministry of Defence who will be terrified for their working futures, but the many tens of thousands more who supply into the services,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bCuts of this enormous extent have dreadful further consequences with everyone from suppliers to local retailers left to take the pain.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bPeople will be angered by a government that exhorts the nation to be `more like Churchill\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 while laying waste to the defence communities Churchill relied upon during the Second World War,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 McCartney added.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bSafeguarding national security cannot result in the spread of employment and economic insecurity for tens of thousands of workers and their families.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nMcCartney warned that the impact would be \u00e2\u20ac\u015bprofound\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWork with us to manage this process so that compulsory redundancies can be avoided and we can keep a stability and continuity in our support for the armed forces,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he called on the government.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe cannot return to the dark days where UK armed service personnel are left with inferior imported kit from overseas simply to serve government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s self-imposed cost-cutting agenda.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nThe full Defence Review can be found here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

More questions than answers arose yesterday (November 24), after the government announced the publication of its Strategic Defence Review, which outlined defence spending priorities for the next five years.   In a blow to British shipbuilding on the Clyde, the government turned its back on its commitment to order the manufacture of 13 Type-26 frigates […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[105,144],"wps_subtitle":"Jobs and communities at risk ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6937"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6937"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6937\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6939,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6937\/revisions\/6939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}