WHY do successive British governments act as if they have no faith in their own people?

There is an endemic skills shortage in this country which has been ignored over the years.

School leavers who fail to qualify for university or college, are encouraged to languish in a sort of, further education limbo, studying ‘life skills’, in an attempt to lower youth unemployment figures.

This government tells us that they aim to create three million new apprenticeships over this Parliament.

It’s a mystery where these placements are going to come from.

Industry in this country is almost non-existent. North Sea oil is running out and we no longer have coal mining, shipbuilding or heavy engineering.

Our Indian-owned steel industry is on its last legs and will ultimately move to India completely for cheap labour. 

These industries used to support a myriad of smaller businesses in the supply chain who also trained apprentices.

The new nuclear power stations, heralded by the government are to be built and part-owned by the Chinese.

Our water is owned by the French and the construction of our new era of gas-fired power stations is up for tender and will be built by goodness knows who.

Only one of the big six energy companies is British-owned.

Even in sport, foreign players and coaches seem to be the order of the day.

As for the media, the BBC is being undermined and cut to the bone, while our biggest tycoon, is an Australian megalomaniac who manipulates politics in this country like a puppet master.

All this is driven by the government’s mania for outsourcing.  

It seems that they can employ anyone in a skilled job except the British people.

George Osborne says that he is “telling the world that Britain is open for business.”

What he means is: Britain is up for sale.  

Most of the new jobs that he says he is creating, are menial and low paid.

Successive governments have purposely turned the UK into a low-skill, low-wage economy.

We have got to the stage where the NHS has to import doctors, nurses and other health professionals because we do not train enough of our own.

In manufacturing we were the envy of the world, an engineering powerhouse.  

It seems that these days we can only sell fast food and dodgy financial services.

We are constantly told that we live in a global society as an excuse to sell off our assets so that bankers and hedge fund managers can profit even further.

The long-suffering Brit­ish people are lions led by a succession of donkeys and deserve better than “the great British sell-off.”

– P Young, Chepstow.