Go back to 2009. That
was the year Vestas closed their wind turbine blade manufacturing
plant on the Isle of Wight.
It was an ugly messy
affair.
Hundreds of people were thrown out of work. A group of the
work force occupied the factory. Some redundancy payments were
refused and folk were reduced to severe economic hardship. (Telegraph Report Here) (On the Wight Report Here)
Why did all this
happen? The company stated that there was no market for wind turbines
in the UK. (Business Green report Here)
Remember this was right
in the middle of the government sponsored planning orgy that allowed
massive wind turbine deployment across the UK. This calamity has
effectively industrialised large areas of previously rural or wild
land.
So Vestas' stated
reason was (how should we say...) economical with the truth. Perhaps
they knew that the government was so in-thrall to the wind industry
that closing down their Isle of Wight factory would have little
effect their market share.
The same year they went
on to employ another 5000 people in China, the USA and Spain. But it
was not just the Isle of Wight that took a hammering. In Scandinavia (including Denmark itself), 3000 loyal employees (properly paid and working in
unsubsidised factories) were made redundant.
Factories and employees
that had built up the Vestas business were cast off like used
Kleenexe. Meanwhile Vestas slavered over cheap labour,
subsidies and the political leverage of bringing “employment” to
hard hit areas.
In a ruthlessly
globalist and morally repugnant way Vestas actually expanded its
work force in 2009.
Now come forward to the
present day.
All of a sudden, in a
great fanfare of Green Roo-ha-ha Vestas are back.
With a perverse sense
of deja-vu they plan to set up a manufacturing facility on the Isle
Wight and in total bring 800 jobs to the UK specifically to
manufacture offshore wind turbine blades.
The exact number
destined for the Isle of Wight is unclear.
So why is this
corporate monster so keen all of a sudden to kiss and make up with
the unemployed on the Isle of Wight?
I think the answer
comes in a single ugly coast scarring phrase. Navitus Bay.
Navitus Bay is the name
given to a huge wind farm planned to lie just offshore of the
Jurassic Coast and the golden sands of Bournemouth Bay. By “sheer
conincidence” it is currently going through the planning approval
stage
Navitus is in trouble.
They were hoping to steam-roller their money making scheme though the
planning process but they have met stiff opposition from everyone
from local councils, international environmental organisations
(Unesco), local MPs and rank and file local residents. The number of
written objections to this proposed calamity is now a national
record.
Navitus plan to spend
around £800 million on turbines. So wouldn't it be rather convenient
if at this point in time local jobs were hostage to offshore turbine
orders, and those orders were in turn dependent on getting approval
for this ruinous industrial wind complex?
I have three
predictions:
Prediction One:
If things get tough for
Navitus (which I sincerely hope they will) all of a sudden you will
get rumblings from Vestas about “unwilling to invest in jobs in a
hostile environment” or some other such bullshit.
Assorted political
lackys will then line up to warn how rejecting Navitus will “destroy
Green jobs”. Even though Vestas has been quite effective at doing
that on the Isle of Wight already.
Prediction Two:
God forbid. If this
monstrosity were ever to be built, then its going to be Vestas
turbines all the way.
Prediction Three:
Finally as to the “new”
Vestas jobs:
Navitus Bay threatens
to destroy a huge number of jobs and seriously impact the tourist
industry all along this coast. The jobs brought to the Isle of Wight
by Vestas will be but a drop in the ocean compared to those lost.
But I predict the jobs
building turbine blades will be safe. That is until they are needed
elsewhere in the world to exert some political influence or, in true
ugly globalist fashion, the Isle of Wight workforce can be undercut
and their jobs exported.
Remember especially
with this last point, Vestas already have a track record.
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