Letter: Hypocrisy of Government over rail contract

Letter: The pathetic underperformance of our politicians in protecting British manufacturing is illustrated yet again by the award of the Thameslink railway carriage contract to the Germans.

The Bombardier works in Derby, employing 3,000 people, is the last significant railway workshop on British soil and is about to be closed by our own government. No one (least of all the continentals) can believe that any government would so willingly be party to destroying a key national industry.

Politicians will claim they are tied by EU competition rules. But, please, let's not have the anti Europe bunch excuse them by blaming it on being part of the EU.

Both the Germans and the French recognise the importance of the manufacturing sector and there is no possibility that either of them would allow a British company to win a government contract of this nature in their territory.

Roger France

Muxton