The hypocrisy of David Wright over RBS

David Wright, the Labour MP for Telford, has demanded a meeting with the Royal Bank of Scotland after the bank announced that it is cutting 500 jobs in Telford as part of the 3,500 job cuts it plans to make in the next year.

David Wright said:

This is a shocking announcement and my thoughts are with the employees of RBS and their families.

The public stumped up the cash to save this bank and this is a kick in the teeth. I am now seeking a meeting with senior RBS management.

If rumours RBS jobs are going abroad are true then it is a disgrace. The bank needs to stop spending millions on sports sponsorship and protect jobs in the UK.

When David Wright says "the public" bailed out RBS, what he means is "the English taxpayer".  Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland get more money from the Treasury than they pay in taxes, only the English pay more in taxes than they get back from the British Treasury.

The money that bailed out RBS and all the other Scottish banks was English money and as the only net contributors to the British Treasury, the English will pay back the loans that the British government, under the leadership of a Scottish Prime Minister and Scottish Chancellor, took out to pay the bills.

When the Scottish Chancellor of the British Exchequer bailed out the Halifax Bank of Scotland, he personally intervened to protect jobs in Scotland at the expense of jobs in England. The HBOS head office is, of course, in Edinburgh where Alistair Darling's constituency is.

The Labour government, of which David Wright was a member (assistant whip in the Treasury), supported HBOS' anti-English policy of sacking people in England to protect jobs in Scotland.  They also stood by while RBS followed HBOS' lead and cut jobs in England to protect jobs in Scotland.

While RBS is cutting 500 jobs in Telford (and another 3,000 elsewhere in England) they have pledged not to cut any jobs in Scotland. Not only that, but they are actually creating jobs in Greenock and Edinburgh in Scotland.

Is RBS being fair to their workers in Telford, sacking 500 people in the town and another 3,000 people in England so they can increase the number of people they employ in Scotland? I don't think that's very fair and I think David Wright is a hypocrite for complaining about the RBS policy of sacking English people to protect Scottish jobs when his government not only condoned, but actively supported, exactly this policy for Scottish banks.

If anyone should be demanding anything, it's the workers at RBS Credit Management in Telford (some of whom I used to work with in the very same building prior to the RBS takeover of NatWest) who should be demanding that their MP stands up for the country he was elected in, for an enquiry into Alistair Darling's dereliction of his duty and legal obligation as a British Minister to treat all citizens equally and for a judicial review of HBOS and RBS' policy of racial discrimination.

Press Release: Gordon Brown ready to sacrifice HBOS jobs in England

Gordon Brown ready to sacrifice HBOS jobs in England to carry out his 1989 pledge to Scotland

‘The real face of Gordon Brown has at last been exposed. As the financial crisis bites deeper and deeper and jobs are threatened in their thousands both in Scotland and England by the imminent Lloyds takeover of HBOS, his declared support for Britain has been shown to be very second place indeed. What really matters to Brown is not Britain but just one part of it. What matters to him is Scotland first and foremost. And if ever there has been a reason for England to have its own parliament which will defend its people, it is now.’ That was the warning and the call issued to Campaign for an English Parliament members in Shropshire by Stuart Parr, member of the CEP National Council.

‘The UK Prime Minister Mr Gordon Brown MP for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath in Fifeshire is now carrying out the pledge he made on March 31sat 1989 when he signed the ‘Scottish Claim of Right’ drawn up by the Scottish Constitutional Convention together with 132 other Scottish MPs and MEPs including Michael Martin the Speaker of the House of Commons.’That Claim of Right read as follows: “We, gathered as the Scottish Constitutional Convention, do hereby acknowledge the sovereign right of the Scottish people to determine the form of Government best suited to their needs, and do hereby declare and pledge that in all our actions and deliberations their interests will be paramount”.

‘Gordon Brown has been the engine driving the Lloyds takover of HBOS” stated Mr Parr. ‘No one can blame him for that. However, what the Times online has reported today is that page one of the formal takeover document promises that “the management focus is to keep jobs in Scotland; and there is no such
reassurance about England”. Not even about Halifax itself, the birthplace of the Halifax Building Society which employs thousands of English men and women. ‘How little Brown cares for England! How else can anyone possibly explain that clause in the takeover document?’ asked Mr Parr. ‘And how unacceptable it is coming from the UK Prime Minister. The interests of just one of the nations that make up the UK should not be paramount to him, should not come first and foremost. Not even to a UK Prime Minister whose future will be decided by the bye-election soon to be held in the Glenrothes constituency next door to his own. Such narrow politiking should not enter into a takeover document of the immense UK-wide importance of the Lloyds-HBOS merger.

‘Clearly England now needs its own Parliament, its own Government and its own First Minister to defend the legitimate interests of its people and restore balance to the Union. England simply cannot trust the UK Government as it stands..Britain is failing England’.