[Lucysgirl]

I'd like to debate the future prospects for our innovative and skilful workforce concerning our aircraft industry if we were no longer part of the EU.

We already have a market outside of the EU for the precision parts that we manufacture and supply for Drones (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles = UAVs).

My concern is for the workers at nearby Broughton and Wales who manufacture the wings for the Airbus where about 40,000 jobs are reliant on the few thousand skilled people who actualy design/manufacture the wings.

We used to design and manufacture aircraft ourselves until money became scarce in early/mid 1960s. Aircraft designers and allied tradesmen lost their jobs and many went abroad in the resulting brain drain. It was about that time that one company had designed Concord but couldn't find the money to produce it in the UK. However, we belonged to the European Coal and Steel Community that had been set up after WWII and it was via this connection that the government turned to France to join us in manufacturing what eventually became Concorde with an E. After we joined what was the Common Market we continued partnering other European Countries in designing and manufacturing various high cost aircraft. In fact my son in law was posted from England to the continent in the 1980s to work on a then current aircraft computer system. Since that time the European Coal and Steel Community has been incorporated into the EU.

Europe doesn't farm out any work, it looks inward. Therefore, my concern is that if we left the EU only the member nations would be invited to take part in the design/manufacture of aircraft. This doesn't hold a very rosy future for 40,000 jobs.

I'd like to hear the latest buzz on the Broughton/Wharton grapevine