Y Viva Gosport

From Stockholm Duckhouse to Madrid rubbish bins.

Things seem to be going from the ridiculous to the outrageous in Gosport...

I bet Gosport residents won't like the new rubbish bins any more than the Ducks liked the Duckhouse...

Only 15 years? French waste disposal comapny Veolia got a generous 28 years from Hampshie County Council.
What I object to isn't the jolly, or even the privatisation of the public sector.
It is the awarding of public sector contracts to overseas companies.
Is there really no British company that can put in an even remotely competitive tender for these contracts?
No idea how much the french contract is worth - must be squillions - but we know the Gosport/Spanish contract is worth at least £175 million.
Would it not be more benficial to the economy if millions of pounds worth of council tax payers money stayed in the UK rather than find its way abroad to line the pockets of foreign shareholders?
The Conservative party is one of these parties that likes to wrap itself in the Union flag but I see no evidence of patriotism here.

This contract stinks mighty bad (like the bins) (and the Conservative Party)! In fact the Conservative Party belongs in the bin.

I am utterly (absolutely, totally, unspeakably) appalled that local Council tax is being used to subsidize a FOREIGN contract.

And that’s not all! Words fail me that this should be a FIFTEEN YEAR contract! FIFTEEN YEARS! Does it REALLY need 15 years for a company to make a contract profitable?

And if it DOES need 15 years to break even, then what sort of a puny profit are they making? Did they bid low to get the contract? What sort of a service does that suggest?

I say renationalize essential services (including refuse collection). British taxpayers are being ripped off, especially by the Conservative Party. It was the Tories who took us into the EU and it is our EU competitors who are destroying our jobs, courtesy of fat cat globalists in this country who would sell their own grandmothers.

No! I’m NOT laughing. I’m bl**dy angry. I HATE to see British jobs going to our EU rivals.

THERE MUST MUST MUST HAVE BEEN A BRITISH CONTRACTOR WHO COULD HAVE BID FOR AND WON THIS CONTRACT.

OH WHAT FOOLS WE ARE TO ALLOW THIS! What fools we are to keep on voting Conservative. I don’t anymore. I’ve voted UKIP since 1994.

Wait until the Royal Mail is privatised, and maybe owned by a Dutch company...!

I agree chaps. Its all wrong, but it has been happening for years and its not just the Conservatives to blame. Labour were just as bad during their 12 years at the helm.

Worzel is right..it's not just the Tories...New Labour, Lib Dems...it makes no difference.

To coin a phrase - 'they are all in it together.'

Now, come along chaps, keep a sense of proportion. It is a basic business principle to get the best possible value, that is to say price and quality. If that can be obtained from a foreign-OWNED company then surely Gosport Borough Councillors are doing the best for the council tax payer. No-one is suggesting that Spaniards will do the work. Presumably it will be honest Gosportian toil combined with the best continental know-how.

I suspect that Messrs Worzel and EastleighNews would be the first to grumble if it turned out that this company had a poor record in Spain, on the Isle of Wight or in Manchester. Going to Madrid is simply doing the proper research to ensure that such a significant contract is properly negotiated.

And Mr Peter Stewart's apoplexy (comment #3) is blinding him to the facts. There is no subsidy. The whole point about obtaining a long term contract is to purchase the best possible service at the lowest possible price. What sort of an answer is nationalisation? You remind me of the three-day week, rubbish piling up in the streets, and a LABOUR government in charge. RUBBISH!!!

As for Sir Peter VIggers, didn't he fly off to some French hideaway? Un canard perdu, je pense... birds of a feather?

Come on Blue Dragoon! Which is it? Best price or best quality? You can’t have it both ways. And what about the THIRD dimension: SERVICE? It is said that you CAN have any two out of the three (price, quality, service) but you can’t have all three. So if you get good price and good quality you get lousy service, or if you get good service and good quality you get lousy price etc. Does everyone see this?

Now why do you suppose this foreign company will employ good old Gosportonians? What’s to stop them from applying the minimum rate (the old “constructive dismissal” technique)? Now I wonder who they would get to work (happily) (nay, MORE than happily) at the minimum rate? Hmm! Hmm! Thrice hmm! Could it be CHEAP EU LABOUR???

Could it be that the rise in “youth” unemployment (aged 16 to 24) from 12% in 2004 (the year we opened our borders to every Eastern European worker) up to 17% in April last year and up a massive 3 percentage points to 20.3% in January 2011 (just 9 months later) could be due to the estimated 1,000,000 to 2,000,000 Eastern Europeans who have taken advantage of this open borders offer and the employers who have exploited a dream opportunity: A never ending supply of cheap, legal labour??? Wait until the backlash!

Oh boy! You talk about the “value” of a contract! You talk about getting the “cheapest” price. This is the kind of talk that I’ve listened to in amazement since 1973. It’s the mentality which has allowed (yes ALLOWED) fat-cat greedy EU globalists (I really CAN justify the term “EU GLOBALIST”) to exchange more than 5 MILLION (repeat 5 MILLION) of our manufacturing jobs for nothing more than (often “cheap in the short term”) foreign goods. And how do they justify it? CHEAPNESS! Oh boy!

Worse than that…oh boy…is THIS a rant too?.... we have witnessed the destruction of significant parts of our war infrastructure. Why do we not listen Terentius? You said it all those centuries ago: He who does not learn from the lessons of history is condemned to relive it!

I tell you now, there is not one British job which is safe from destruction by cheap (EU) (foreign) labour. Thanks to traitors running the country since 1973 Britain has been forced onto its knees with a population which never smiles, never whistles, never sings. What a trade off, what a rip off. Wait for the backlash!

...and another thing! I've just been watching the transport of umpteen massive brewing silos from Reading to Poland. This laborious operation is taking place on B roads. Once over in Poland, the beer will be brewed over there using cheap labour and then exported back to us to drink over here. Will we pay less? Will we benefit from cheaper prices? Of course not! We never have benefited from the export of our jobs. We never have benefitted from cheap foreign labour. All that happens is that company profits increase, British workers lose their jobs, commnities go down the pan, national happiness vanishes, a few fat cats at the top get even richer and fatter and Brits keep on drinking their beer, smoking their fags and watching their football.

Whoa BlueDragoon! To read about 'Rubbish piling up in the streets' we only have to mouse back five stories on Pete's blog.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/peterhenley/2011/01/rubbish_collection_in_dorset_h.html

Yes, Poole council is true blue CONSERVATIVE with not a single Labour seat on the council!

Had the worthy aldermen of Gosport gone to Madrid in September they would have seen plenty of garbage piled up there too as Spanish bin men - I asssume this would include employees of 'Urbaser' -went on strike over pay and conditions. Which would have served to illustrate that in the privatisation of public services cost is usually reduced at the expense of the largest overhead - pay and conditions.

Which brings me to the 'three day week' which you have mentioned. You must surely be aware that a growing section of the working population are employed on exactly that?

The privatised sector likes to keep down costs by hiring people on a casual/temporary/part time basis.

Mrs. eastleighnews currently works three part time jobs - which still only add up to 22 hours a week. All three jobs are with Hampshire County Council and are all jobs that would have previously been part of a fulltime position. All three jobs are on a one year contract!

Regrettably, it appears I am unemployable so we have to make our money up to a living wage sufficent to support our family by claiming substantial tax credits.

The less you are paid by your employer, the more luvvly *Tax free* money you get.


So I suspect Peter Stewart's comment that "tax is being used to subsidize a FOREIGN contract." is on the button.

Labour costs for for the private sector are being increasingly subsidised by tax payers through working tax credit, child tax credit and housing benefit.

Hey, maybe it would be cheaper for Gosport's council taxpayers if their bin men were kept on in fulltime decent paid jobs in the public sector?

While on the subject of tax...does anyone know the answer to this one:

If the HQ of Urbaser is domiciled in Spain, in which country is the tax on the profits for their UK contracts paid?

Hmm! Maybe the foreign company elects to pay its taxes in the most preferential country. Surely that would be ... BRITAIN?

I blame the Tories for all this. I should know, I WAS ONE! I wasted 20 years of my life supporting a party which all the time was working to destroy Britain by aiding and abetting the EU.

The Tory party has been taken over by traitors. How do I justify this assertion? Well that's easy, because what sort of people would go around saying that we, the British people, are not fit to govern ourselves and that we should let foreigners do it for us (and that we should pay them handsomely for the privilege). Well Tory leaders say just that. Tory leaders STILL want Britain under the EU.

If we were not under the EU we would still have tariffs and therefore a decent manufacturing base. YES! I blame the Tory party. It is rotten to the core and now, thankfully, it will NEVER get re-elected (without LibDem help). As long as UKIP and the BNP and a few other anti-EU parties stand in elections, the Tory vote will be split and they will lose vital marginal seats. They will NEVER win another General Election until they agree to UKIP's demands for a proper referendum on whether to stay in or leave the EU. They took us in! They must take us out! When they agree to do that, then I will switch my allegiance FULLY behind the Tories and do everything I can to make sure they get elected! And they WILL! But ONLY if they do the right thing over Europe.