Contract goes abroad while HS2 goes ahead

I have just read of the awarding of a £6 billion contract for 1,200 rolling stock carriages to Siemens (to be made in Germany) rather than Bombardier works at Derby (in England).

To think that many people, like us, voted last time thinking that the Conservatives would actually put a stop to such crass stupidity.

The feelings my wife and I have are: disbelief, disgust, betrayal and treachery that, on their watch, this would be allowed.

I am having to read the article again and again because I can’t believe my eyes and senses.

It is patently obvious that the government hasn’t got a bloody clue what it is doing. Can you, in your wildest dreams, imagine Germany doing the same?

This on top of the idiocy of spending £40 billion (no doubt will rise well above this) on a High Speed Rail link. The benefits are unknown and dubious and are mainly being championed by the very people who will make mega-money from constructing the project. I do know this, that vast swathes of what remains of our our precious countryside will be destroyed, and life will never be the same for the people who live nearby.

No doubt the shares in foreign manufacturing companies are rising at the prospect as I write. Perhaps MPs have bought some. - David Jenkins, via email.