Monday, February 02, 2009

Unions' recipe for disaster in power station dispute

Take a hefty bit of anxiety about the economic downturn, when people are worried about whether they will still have a job at the end of the week, month of year.

Add the idea that foreign workers might be stealing British jobs.

Whip into frenzy.

That will give you the angry and unpleasant scenes we've seen at Lindsey, Longannet, Sellafield and other places across the country.

It's deeply depressing to see such hatred and I worry that it's only a matter of time before somebody gets hurt.

Pandering to prejudice is no way to relieve people's concerns about the economic downturn. If we were to do what the unions wanted, we'd be in complete lumber as we have far more British people working in the EU than citizens of other EU countries working here.

The way forward on all of this is not for Gordon Brown to buckle and give the Unions what they want. It's for the Government to recognise the ineffectiveness of its measures to tackle the economic downturn and to take radical action. Their VAT cut is their next ineffective, expensive waste of time after ID cards. As usual, Vince has some pretty sensible suggestions. Let's create lots of jobs by embarking on some much needed public investment instead. By doing that we will equip ourselves well for the future and minimise the suffering that unemployment causes to individuals and families.

For once in my life I agree with Peter Mandelson, who has stated that a protectionist approach would "turn recession into depression".

Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg has been characteristically robust in condemning the line spewed out by the unions and some Labour MPs by stating some simple facts - think about the effect on employment if every British worker in the EU was sent home.

The Government needs to stop trying to blame other people for its failings and take decisive, effective action to get us through the recession.

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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I wonder how many of these strike 'leaders' have foreign cars, foreign appliances at home and ave foreign holidays?

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