I would not normally use my own blog page to post content such as this but I did wish to be able to visibly show my support for friends who work in the area that find themselves under threat of job loss for what, on the face of it, appears to be a poor decision. Below is a letter I wrote today and posted to Downing Street.

7^th July 2011

Dear Prime Minister Cameron,

Bombardier Job Losses

The text below was meant to be an e-mail to your office but you only allow 1000 characters. I know we live in a Twitter 140 character world but that is ridiculous. I also wanted to see if there was an online petition regarding the above subject. There is not one on your site. Your site directs me to YouGov who tell me that later in the year they will have this facility. So I am led to using the old fashioned route of a letter. Please read below.

It is with interest and with sadness that I see the loss of jobs from Bombardier in Derby. Having grown up in this city where it was fiercely a railway and Rolls Royce town and proud of it, I have seen these once great industries decline. The workforce associated with them have spent the last 20 years changing themselves and their work methods, their unionisation and their attitude towards management to become a cooperative and dynamic workforce. It will be a shame to lose such passion, talent and skills.

The true story of why the bid was lost and how many jobs may or may not have been at risk prior to losing the large contract to Siemens will come out in the end. All this atmosphere of accusation and defence simply leads to take the emotion out of the loss and divert energy away from the real point. The point is that there are a lot of jobs being lost and with them vital skills that will be needed in the future.

I do think that it is an interesting and uncomfortable coincidence that you moved your cabinet meeting up to Derby so recently thus turning the spotlight locally onto what you thought of, and feel about, the local economy and its workforce. I find it interesting that no one in your team was able to help you manage expectations at that point because the decisions must have, by that time, been all but made.

Be it because of circumstance or because of your own words and deeds I think you have become inextricably linked with this crisis for our city.

As we put up with the Blair/Brown administration and their “job creation” I always felt that they were skilled at losing quality jobs and providing more opportunities for the jobless to become pizza delivery drivers. Please do not develop the same skill it will demean you.

You are a man of charisma and influence. Please use both to support the workers of Bombardier and ensure they are looking towards a future bright with the prospects of skilled, demanding and fulfilling work.

.I have a lot of faith in you. I can associate with your values and beliefs. I would now like to be able to say to my friends and family that I support your actions in this time and around this matter. There is a challenge for you here, please rise to it.

Your sincerely

Julian Hall

Beating Anger Derby

0845 505 2450