The oil refinery protests are just the beginning
The protests against the employment of foreign workers at the TOTAL oil refinery near Grimsby do not bode well. A quick glance at the voting statistics shows that this may well be the start of something thoroughly unpleasant as the UK economy continues to struggle. Grimsby has been Labour since 1945, but in the 2005 General Election, Labour’s majority fell from 11,500 to 7,700 - almost all of which was votes shed by Labour to the BNP, UKIP and the Green Party. The BNP got 1,338 votes, which was 4.1% of the vote share. The Grimsby voters are 98.5% white and 97.4% of the voters were born in the UK.
The question now appears to be who are Labour more afraid of in Grimsby – the Conservatives or the BNP? Will the Labour heartlands turn to David Cameron or will the BNP become a major presence in the region?
>> at the TOTAL oil refinery near Grimsby
Total, the (err) French oil company. So the banners should properly read “FRENCH JOBS FOR BRITISH WORKERS!!” ?
Agreed, but I don’t want to be the one who tries to explain that to the angry mob.
:cough: yes, umm, good point.
Hmm, I guess Jon Cruddas hasn’t seen that photo up on your post, as he’s insisting that these strikes ‘are not about xenophobia, they’re about large corporations and free markets that are out of control’, and the answer is ‘greater regulation to end low pay, low skill and casualised labour’…
I expect he’d be somewhat reluctant to explain that position to the strikers too…
I find it also inexplicable the inability of this Government to explain to those workers what the European Union means. Which is understandable: how do you explain that the EU prevents Mr Brown from living up to his (vacuous and even stupid, given the existence of the EU) pledge of “British jobs for British workers?” He never meant it THAT way of course; that expression was just more Brownite blather.
Like “global problems need global solutions,” it belongs on a cereal box, but these hard-pressed men actually (understandably) took it seriously. The EU is not a new thing, and this Government is always stating how it wants Britain “at the heart of Europe.” Another blah advert in good times, but in the real world those aren’t just words and as we see now, under economic stress, the real world v. that sort of cereal box saying, are starting to collide.
The main problem is not only is this Government nearly all words, but that it doesn’t live in that real world those angry British men inhabit, day in and day out. If it did, Mr Brown wouldn’t have used that ridiculous “jobs” expression in the first place.
They’re just getting started.
The unions involved in this are hypocrites.
For years they have called for the free movement of labour, and now…?
British taxes for foreign workers:
http://www.ukip.tv/?page_id=3
UKIP and the BNP could easily take advantage of the situation before the European elections, and who could blame them – immigration within the EU is not something any mainstream political party is going to get involved in because anyone who raises the issue knows precisely where that political train of thought leads to (particularly in terms of press coverage).
A minimum wage across Europe is an interesting angle, and I’m a little surprised that no-one has really suggested implementing that in the Eurozone.
I’ve voted Conservative for 34 years. My blog is festooned with support for the Party and explanations of Margaret Thatcher’s policies, the EU and globalisation. I have nowt against immigration if it is for skilled labour or warranted due to lack thereof of our own countrymen being in full-time, productive and profitable employment. Today, I read Conservative Home and seen what William Hague has been saying on the Andrew Marr show and he’s just lost a vote. I now join the ranks of disenfranchised Tories who has no home for my vote and I guess I’ll be voting UKIP at the next elections. No more will I bother my arse to wait for someone in politics to represent the British people.
immigration within the EU is not something any mainstream political party is going to get involved in because anyone who raises the issue knows precisely where that political train of thought leads to (particularly in terms of press coverage)
Well, that’s the problem, isn’t it? If no mainstream politician will talk about we know who will, we know what they’ll say and we can be certain it would be illegal under EU law and probably unconscionable as heads start being caved in with bricks. An early poster hit it on the head when he said that our masters have failed in explaining what the EU is to people – Auf Wiederseing Pet was, after all, about itinerant Geordie builder’s going to Germanty to take their jobs and money under EU rules. Without the spine to do that and to talk about the issues of labour-mobility in total, I can guarantee you that the evil 12,000 from the BNP membership database will have some fun. And if they don’t or are too inept to do it properly, someone else will.
“I find it also inexplicable the inability of this Government to explain to those workers what the European Union means. Which is understandable: how do you explain that the EU prevents Mr Brown from living up to his (vacuous and even stupid, given the existence of the EU) pledge of “British jobs for British workers?” He never meant it THAT way of course; that expression was just more Brownite blather.”
I don’t find it inexplicable at all! Our lying, self-centred political class as represented by the politicians currently occupying the Commons have little understanding of private sector employment. They hold Europe up as a good thing – it might have been in the 1970s, but it is now our real Government, given the powere ceded to it by successive UK Governments.
When Brown stood up and made his speech about “British jobs for British workers” he knew he could not deliver – given the EU legislation and treaties that he and his predecessors have signed up to. This is just the tip of the iceberg – the mood of many skilled and manual workers is likely to get much darker when it dawns on them what the real impact of our EU membership is during a recession.
Workers at Sellafield have started to walk out. ( BBC )
I’d like to wish them the best of luck and to say stuff legislation which is discriminating against British oil workers. Civil protest is the only way to change this and that right must be protected too.
Incidentally, where does the government come in to this with public sector workers or does it just apply to private industry where people are actually employed to do a job of WORK?
What if the Inland Revenue had to tender out across the world and have 8,000 immigrants doing their jobs? – Oh, sorry, I missed that they do, don’t they. Same as the NHS when nurse training places are cut in this country, schools, etc.
The country has gone to the dogs under Labour !!!
Why is our party not sticking up for it and demanding unilateral action to change this practice?
[...] which Gordon Brown rued the day that he said “British jobs for British Workers”. This seemed to lead to an interesting debate on the nature of the BNP and their place on the political spectrum, as [...]
[...] blogs commenting on the BNP in the last few days. One suggests they won’t win any MEP slots, one suggests gains are likely, and one talks about it being left [...]