Britannia Radio

I must emphasise one point first - about Mandelson.  He is an ex-EU 
Commissioner.  All EU Commissioners when taking office promise to put 
the interests of the EU above that of their country of origin and on 
taking up their pension,  as he has, they are bound to support the EU 
against their own country.   (Kinnock, Brittan and Patten are all 
similarly compromised]

The snow today may have put all developments in the "foreign workers" 
dispute  'on hold' but it has not gone away.  When this immediate 
dispute is over one legacy is certain.  There will be a growing 
realisation of the extent of the powerlessness of our Westminster 
government and - at last - a revulsion against Brussels.

The trouble is that all the 3 main parties will refuse to back this 
revulsion and since nobody takes UKIP seriously the residuary legatee 
will probably be the generally unpleasant and dangerous BNP.  Think 
about it!

On a lighter note Richard North in his EuReferendunm blog remarks 
wryly  "However, they  [the strikers] might be beaten by the rush of 
global warming we have been having lately, which might actually stop 
them getting to work in order to stop working."
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Benedict Brogan in his Mail Online Blog observes - - -
MPs snowed out
Portcullis House is deserted, only the coffee shop is open, the 
pathways on the estate are claiming victims, Brian Haw [the permanent 
peace protestor of Parliament Square]  looks like a snowman, and I'm 
told the authorities have decided there are no votes today. In effect 
Parliament is closed. So not much Blitz spirit around here. Or is it 
because it's a Lib Dem opposition day, which is about as expendable 
as you can get? The brave few who have made it in are comparing 
footwear and revealing how easy it actually was to get here.  [my 
papers and my milk were on time! -cs]
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BBC NEWS Blogs       2.2.09
Nick Robinson's Newslog

What is the government's view of the wildcat strikes? Clearly, 
ministers want them to stop but do they think the strikers have a 
point or not? Listen to different ministers and you get different 
answers.

Cabinet minister and former union leader Alan Johnson told the BBC on 
Sunday morning that "I can understand the anger" of the strikers. He 
went on to suggest that new EU directives were needed "to make it 
absolutely clear that people can't be undercut in this way" so that 
"we don't allow this kind of dumbing down".

Hours later, Peter Mandelson said that the firm involved - Total - 
has made clear that there is no discrimination against British 
workers, either in the form of their wages being undercut or them 
being excluded from applying for jobs. What's more, he said that the 
issue of European law is quite separate from this dispute.

The unions are concerned that recent court rulings make it impossible 
to defend their members from the threat of cheap labour coming from 
abroad. They point to the case of a Latvian company, Laval, which had 
a contract to build schools in Sweden. Laval claimed that its freedom 
to use a Latvian workforce was being inhibited by attempts to block 
the move by Swedish unions. Its complaint was upheld in the European 
Court of Justice.

Business ministers are not challenging this judgement or pushing for 
new directives, but are merely awaiting a report from the European 
Commission on the effects of the ruling.

It would only be relevant to the current British dispute if there 
were evidence of discrimination against British workers - which Lord 
Mandelson insists there isn't.

This morning, Lord Mandelson suggested that the confusion was simply 
a matter of timing - in other words, that his cabinet colleague was 
simply talking before the facts were made clear by the employer.
Somehow I doubt that will quite solve the problem.
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THE SUN   2.2.09
Why foreign worker row will erupt into a headache for Gord

By TREVOR KAVANAGH

THE only surprise in the row over Grimsby's foreign workers is that 
it took so long to erupt.

When jobs are scarce, why should skilled Brits stand idle while 
hundreds of Italians are imported.

For years we have been told what we can and cannot do by 
unaccountable Brussels directives.  Now in hard times, we are no 
longer prepared to put up with the lunatic attempt to turn the EU 
into an artificial nation state.

Europe's overweening power, and the Government's refusal to act, are 
turning migrant labour into a toxic new factor in this slump.

Gordon Brown casually handed strikers their slogan when he promised 
"British jobs for British workers".

"Deputy PM" Peter Mandelson fears unemployment - here and in Europe - 
could unravel the EU.  Yet Mandy fuelled the blaze by telling 
strikers if they don't like Italians taking our jobs, they should go 
to Italy and take theirs!

He should understand that this clash over foreign workers is just the 
first puff of smoke from the volcano.

This small island was never going to cope long-term with three 
million uninvited, sometimes unwelcome and often illegal, guests in 
seven short years.

Nor, as times get tougher, will we quietly accept the Government's 
prediction of ten million more.

The strikes at oil, gas and chemical plants are only the start.

There are plenty more foreign-only deals waiting to explode, not 
least the £12billion Olympics where thousands of non-UK workers are 
being hired.

Brits of all backgrounds, including established migrants, have been 
simmering over immigration for a decade.  They were treated with 
contempt as Labour recklessly opened the door to countless newcomers.

Yes, the vast majority are decent, law-abiding workers, grateful for 
our hospitality.
But there is an ugly side to immigration we are not supposed to talk 
about...    Freeloading on the welfare state, jumping housing queues 
and mopping up health and welfare provision for which they have paid 
no tax.

Immigrants feature disproportionately in criminal violence. Organised 
gangs from Africa, Albania and Asia run ruthless drug and vice rings. 
And ministers do absolutely nothing about it.

Labour champions equality but ignores its own natural supporters - 
hard-working tradesmen priced out by EU rivals.

Labour vigilantly imposes Health & Safety fascism yet turns a blind 
eye to migrants exploited as slave labour.   Unions hail the minimum 
wage as their greatest triumph while workers compete with foreign 
rivals who work all hours for what they see as a king's ransom.

Labour decided long ago that all immigration is good.   If it raises 
tax revenue, the more the merrier.  All minorities, even those with 
no link to this country, take priority over the established population.

Inner cities are colonised by entire communities who live, pray, 
dress and speak as if they still lived in tribal villages.  
Shockingly, there are 300 schools where English is not the first 
language.

Labour is obsessed with its diversity agenda, yet it sits mute as 
women in ghettos are kept ignorant, forced into marriage or, in some 
cases, murdered for refusing.

Any attempt to raise matters like this is denounced as "racism".
Labour effectively silenced Tories with this ugly smear. Now they are 
being forced on the back foot because the same charges are being 
levelled from their own side.

Trevor Phillips, black chairman of the Equality and Human Rights 
Commission, has spoken bravely about his party's mistakes on race.

Threat
Past and present immigration ministers have talked about action, 
while at the same time waving in 150,000 workers a year.

Dagenham MP Jon Cruddas warns Labour MPs risk a dangerous threat from 
an increasingly strident BNP.

But it is Birkenhead rebel Frank Field who speaks up for the whole 
country.
"Stakes could not be higher," he warns. "The men and women on these 
picket lines are not just fighting for their jobs, they are asserting 
their national identity.
"Anger should be directed at this Government."
Couldn't put it better myself.

GORDON BROWN concedes he might have put the economy at risk when he 
removed the Bank of England as City watchdog in 1997.
But he seems bewildered that greedy bankers took advantage of this 
loophole, plunging Britain into the worst slump in the Western world.
Will he go a little further and admit that on the day after Labour 
came to power, he and Tony Blair were told in a blazing face-to-face 
row with Bank governor Eddie George that this was precisely the risk 
they were taking?
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THE TIMES   2.2.09
More strikes loom in row over hiring foreign workers at low wages

Sam Coates, David Robertson and David Charter

Britain is braced for more wildcat strikes after a day of confusion 
in the Government that failed to resolve the row over foreign workers.

Up to 1,000 construction workers at Sellafield, the nuclear 
reprocessing facility, will decide today whether to join the walkout 
over building jobs, which unions claim are being handed straight to 
overseas workers.

Ministers were forced into an embarrassing U-turn yesterday after 
Alan Johnson, the Health Secretary, suggested that the Government was 
preparing to bow to union demands to push for measures in Europe to 
protect British jobs. Unions want a new EU directive to overturn a 
ruling by the European Court of Justice in 2007 that made it easier 
for companies to circumvent pay deals by hiring foreigners on lower 
wages. They believe that Gordon Brown could be forced to take action 
after promising "British jobs for British workers" in his 2007 Labour 
conference speech.

Mr Johnson, a former union leader, said: "We need to bring in fresh 
directives to make it absolutely clear that people cannot be undercut 
in this way." This was firmly rebuffed, however, by Lord Mandelson, 
the Business Secretary, [his EU pension compromises his integrity -
cs] who said that it would be a huge mistake. He questioned the 
influence of the court rulings, saying that they were generating 
debate among lawyers.

Total, which runs the Lindsey oil refinery where the dispute began, 
issued a statement later hinting that it may offer jobs to Britons 
alongside the Italians and Portuguese workers who have been hired for 
construction jobs. "It is legal for subcontractors to supply their 
own employees but, where vacancies are advertised, we will work with 
our subcontractors to ensure that British workers are considered in 
the same way as anyone else," it said.

After the statement, Lord Mandelson [see above -cs]  urged workers to 
call off the industrial action. He appeared to side with Total to 
insist that the subcontractors were operating within the law. "The 
law is not being broken and it will not be broken and I hope this 
message is now carried across all those workforces that have been 
understand-ably concerned."

Acas, the conciliation service, will meet unions, workers and 
employers today to find a way to halt the strikes and protests, which 
spread to more than a dozen locations last week. The unions Unite and 
the GMB are expected to back the creation of an independent panel to 
investigate individual complaints by British workers of being 
excluded from jobs. Unions said that they had warned the Government 
weeks ago that British workers were being prevented from applying for 
construction jobs because foreign workers were coming in on less money.

Nervousness about the strikes was fuelled by news that the British 
National Party was promoting the protests on its website, using the 
"British jobs for British workers" slogan.  [Anyone surprised? -cs]

Sadiq Khan, the Communities Minister, said: "What we cannot have is 
the perception that foreign companies are abusing the rules of the EU 
to penalise British workers who have the skills to do the job."

There were also warnings from Peter Hain, the former Cabinet 
minister, that the dispute could damage Britain's energy supply. 
"They could actually stop petrol supplies and stop power supplies," 
he said, a claim that was firmly denied by the Department for Energy 
and Climate Change.

The Times has learnt, however, that National Grid, the power 
distributor, is monitoring the situation very closely in case 
electricity and gas supplies are interrupted. The company could 
instruct large energy users, such as factories, to close because 
maintaining domestic power supplies is regarded as the top priority, 
especially as snow and low temperatures grip the country.

The unions stepped up the pressure yesterday, even though they do not 
formally support the unofficial protest, with plans for a protest 
march in London on Thursday.

Derek Simpson, the joint general secretary of Unite, called on the 
Government to use social responsibility rules to force companies that 
receive public funds to consider hiring British workers. Mr Simpson 
is battling for reelection to his union post. Other candidates for 
his job have seized on the issue, including Jerry Hicks, who alleges 
on his campaign website that he sustained a fractured leg after being 
assaulted by the police during a protest at Staythorpe power station.

The unions are desperate to overturn two European rulings, known as 
the Viking and Laval cases, which prevent them from protesting 
against companies that bring in foreign workers and undercut 
collective bargaining agreements. The European Council, including 
Britain, committed itself to the status quo as recently as December 17.