A reminder
Peter Hoskin 6:05pmOur 'Do you support the strikers?' poll closes at 10pm this evening. If you want to register your vote before then, do so by clicking here. At the moment, the voting stands as follows...
Question 1: Do you agree with the workers who have walked out in protest at the subcontracting of work to foreign companies and their workers?
Yes: 52.8 percent
No: 35.8 percent
I don't know enough about the details of the Total case: 11.6 percent
Question 2: Do you support the free movement of workers within the European Union?
Yes: 54.0 percent
No: 39.2 percent
Previous
Pete
February 3rd, 2009 6:57pm Report this commentOk so, I gather that the protests are about the unfairness of the contract holder's recruitment policy. The gov' rejoinder being that more Brit workers work over the Channel than vice versa. It seems to me they are shining the GBP on with their comments as usual (notwithstanding the laval and viking decisions) unless Brit workers are enjoying a similar advantage over the indigenous workers in other countries...
AndyLeeds
February 4th, 2009 8:49am Report this commentProblem is the questions are contradictory under EU Law. If you have free movement of Labour that's what you have. You can't then have 'British jobs for British workers' not matter how logical it might be.
Mark, Edinburgh
February 4th, 2009 10:47am Report this commentExactly Pete. Its all about access.
FCO website says;
Btitsih Migrant workers in the EU; 230,00
EU migrant workers in Britain; 1.1 milion.
The spin phrase "2 million Britons live and work in the EU" is used by politicians and constantly repeated in the media.
Its true, but pure spin. "Live and work" includes retirees of course!
Ray
February 4th, 2009 11:28am Report this commentThe EU's 'freedom of movement' provisions made sense when the old EEC comprised overwhelming wealthy nations were there was little incentive for more than a handful of footloose professionals to jet off to employment opportunites elsewhere.
However, the accession of a whole swathe of relatively impoverished east European nations changed all that. Most other EU nations wisely placed limits on the influx they were willing to accept. Only Britain and Ireland granted a free-for-all, with the result that the 15,000 who were predicted to come here seeking work actually turned out to be fifty times that number.
Freedom of movement is a noble sentiment, provided it is allied with a healthy dose of common sense - a quality that this Government seems to possess in inverse proportions to the dangers inherent in most of its misbeggoten policies.
Back to top