WI: Northern Irish industry not supported

[BlueTrousers]

IOTL, the British government made a number of sub-optimal procurement decisions in order to send work to Shorts Aircraft and Harland & Wolff in Belfast. The objective was to keep employment high in Northern Ireland, thereby reducing the possibility of civil unrest.

What if this isn't done, the orders are allowed to go to the best bidder, and employment in Belfast is allowed to drop?

 

[Riain]

Belfast is by no means special in that work was thrown at it for political purposes. It was why the clapped out ark royal was refitted for 32 million instead of the top notch eagle for 5 million.

 

[Don Quijote]

Some of the reasons used to keep work in NI may have been political, but Belfast was still an important industrial city. Short Bros for example were ahead of the field with VTOL aircraft,supported the EE Lightning programme, built the fourth V-bomber (the straight winged Sperrin), and also produced the successful Skyvan/SD 330/SD 360 series of light transports.

 

[b0ned0me]

Some of the reasons used to keep work in NI may have been political, but Belfast was still an important industrial city. Short Bros for example were ahead of the field with VTOL aircraft,supported the EE Lightning programme, built the fourth V-bomber (the straight winged Sperrin), and also produced the successful Skyvan/SD 330/SD 360 series of light transports.

But all the good work Short might have done is offset by the presence of H&W, a financial black hole that money disappeared into non-stop for the entire 20th century. Even by the standards of British business, taking a loss of £80,000 on building a ship priced at £30,000 is quite the achievement