Tuesday 3 February 2009

Truth not loathing in Lindsey

Interesting piece by David Aaronovitch over at The Times today about the fear and loathing at Lindsey, and how both Left and Right appear to be having an oppositional mind meld.
Aaronovitch makes the point that although initially it seemed that the point was that British workers were actively being excluded from these jobs, and that appeared extremely unfair, he has pursued the unions and no one has been able to provide him with any evidence that this is the case.
Obviously discrimination by nationality would be wrong, but is this just a chance for an outpouring of xenophobic vitriole? Aaronvitch certainly thinks it is.
It would be in the interest of the contractor to show how it had gone about taking on these employees. How were the jobs advertised and where?
Perhaps the sub contractor can show it has accepted applications from a wide range of potential workers?
In times of recession, it is all too easy to slip into a protectionist fervour about ringfencing our jobs, but surely the point is here that all jobs in the UK should be advertised and open to all qualified EU applicants, whereever they come from, and each applicant should be considered fairly and equally (and the same should be true in every EU country).

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