The elephant in the room is hard at work today – being invisible. From the BBC website and elsewhere, we learn that around 800 people took part in the demonstration outside the giant Lindsey Oil Refinery at North Killingholme, Lincs yesterday. The workers walked out in protest to 250 jobs being given to foreign workers instead of unemployed locals following the awarding of a specialist contract to an Italian firm.

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"British" for Gordon Brown means accepting the BRITISH VALUES of TOLERANCE and DIVERSITY. As these striking workers do not accept the BRITISH VALUES they cannot be considered British.

But really, not withstanding the meddling of the EU, what would be your approach to solving this conflict?

...something this blog & a few others have been trying to do since Pontius was a UAV.
Our rue-ling classes are well past attempting to explain to them the plight of hoi polloi in this tangled web of Eurospeak smoke, mirrors & middens....even if they could find the one-syllable words so to do...though some of the brighter afflicted in this, as yet fairly minor contretemps are scenting an atmophere that no longer has the perfume of plastic moolah & wet beer mats.
Despite years of insouciance...and thus a considerable portion of the blame, those few now affected and those many thousands, unfortunately, to come must have some sympathy ( I know very well what it is to be suddenly jobless)...but they gave their vote, time & again, to some truly awful & incompetent rascals who have put them squarely behind the 8 ball.
Lindsey Oil is, I fear, a mild 'Vorspiel' prior to some seriously major shafting...there will be no exquisite gain without the exquisite pain component.

"Everyone's a foreigner somewhere"
People from other EU countries aren't furriners are they Richard?...are they?

just heard about this on the Today programme. and yes , the elephant in the room was not mentioned

however, one interesting aspect is that there are , apparently , some walkouts in sympathy with the strikers - and there is also evidence of the general public joining the strikers at the oil refinery.

i dare say - we shall see a lot more of this as the credit crunch recession bites harder.

This is very close to home for me (literally). If husband hadn't been on leave, he'd be on the picket line.

I think what is going to make the strikers angrier than the government/EU aspect, is the role played by the Union. Most of the guys naively believe that British Unions still fight for British workers and are looking to their union now to "protect British jobs".

Once they realise how the Unions have also 'shafted' them in favour of a "European Workforce", they'll be none to pleased.

I want to get out there leafleting on the picket lines .. but I can't seem to find any appropriate leaflets explaining just how they've all been 'shafted' (love that word) in the field of EU labour law.
If anyone can help, can you please let me know?
Thanks
JO

Well said Richard.

How do you know they aren't a diverse and tolerant people?

Well, the companies really do have the right to hire whoever they want.
I don't mean 'right' as in an arbitrary legal construct dreamed up by the EU - I mean a legitimate right, a corollary of the right to property.

Jo

Print out the Web address of EU Referendum, under maybe something like.......

You want to know who is shafting you ?

....................The EU...................

Go to http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/

PS I see that the French got 1 million on the streets ystdy and it turned nasty.

The colleagues may need multiple triples at lunch tdy and avoid all meat, as the sight of a sharp knife sliceing through meat, could well induce sudden uncontrollable bowel movements.

One 'positive' aspect of this recession, aside obviously from the terrible misery it causes, is that job losses make people more politically interested, and it will certain highlight the role of the EU when it becomes clear that national Governments are impotent. The elephant may be invisible now, but it surely can't stay that way the deeper and longer a recession goes on especially as the EU is not flexible enough or quick enough to avoid issues which are obviously going to come to the fore now

Jo/F.U.

In this instance the ' Lord And Master Richard' should assist with a script, available to all, being that it is time that the uninformed, are.
Lots of Luck Jo.

This is a hard one if you feel yourself mainly a free marketeer (although not one to allow aliens in to the country ).

The main reason our workforce is so expensive is because our taxes are so high. So if we dont contribute to the EU we can have less taxes and lower wages to compete.

Isn`t Derek Simpson of UNITE a bit under Siege because of the revelations about his grace and favour home courtesy of the union ? He may well have to look tough or people will be wondering what good a union is for ?

Yes ... strange how Benn and Brown are reported as making sympathetic noises without mentioning the EU. Doubtless I'm one among many who have sent the BBC a comment in their Have Your Say section mentioning the EU - it'll be interesting to see how many they publish.

This is not a free labour market, because local people can't go for those jobs. If the contractor set up here and had a hiring office, despite bringing in some people from home, that would be OK. I understand that in one of these projects, maybe not this one, the foreign workers will be hostelled on ships and don't need to set foot in the UK other than to work, and will not need to spend money here either. It's unlikely any employment laws will be enforced in these circumstances, so no free market there either.