Monday, February 02, 2009

The Monday morning blog: when posturing like the BNP comes back to haunt you

There is something odd in the recent wildcat and illegal strikes at oil terminals (and now Sellafield). British jobs for British workers? Actually, these are French jobs for British workers, for it is British workers working for a French company who are striking in opposition to other, non British workers being employed.

Foreign businesses such as Total, and, for us in the North East, Nissan have invested heavily in the UK economy in recent years. Without them, there would be far fewer jobs for British workers. We start picking apart that for short term political gain at our peril. And that is precisely what Gordon Brown did back in 2007 at his first conference speech as Labour leader (just before he drove a wrecking ball through the Labour party with his fiasco over the election that never was).

Brown is a politician who is more driven by spin that even New Labour in overdrive. Blair had a big spin operation as well but there is something different about Brown's. He treats people as if they are stupid and in the process creates far more false claims that come back to haunt him (though admittedly Blair's claims on Iraq were a disaster that never went away.) So with Brown we have the "end of boom and bust", the claim that Britain is best placed to come through the recession and, of course, "British jobs for British workers."

The Ghost of Conference Speeches Past is certainly back to haunt him. Not only was Brown stupid to have lifted a line from the BNP, he was offering something that was illegal, is contrary to the whole direction in which the economy had been moving for generations and is impossible to deliver. Could you imagine the incandescent rage from Brown if President Sarkozy had beaten him to it and called for French jobs for French workers and demanding that British companies with sites in France should be forced to remove any British workers and replace them with French?

Brown is an intelligent guy but that has not given him common sense. His British jobs for British workers demand (note that it was never follwed up by any action to ensure it happened) has come back to haunt him big style and give him an almightly kick up his well spun rear end. And frankly, he deserves every bit of it.

---
Sent via BlackBerry

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yes, I agree, Gordon Brown has certainly dug himself into a big hole with his theft of the BNP slogan 'British Jobs for British Workers'.

And your point about French investment being in jeopardy because of this is nonsensical. They don't just employ French workers when they invest here, unlike this Italian sub-contractor and other foreign companies exploiting this loophole.

Those firms are using EU law (which your party supports wholeheartedly) to deny British workers jobs by bussing in foreign nationals to do the work.

The Lib Dem leadership have been conspicuously silent on this issue.

Care to tell us why, Jonathan?

Anonymous said...

Hey there Kevin,

BRITISH JOBS FOR BRITISH PEOPLE !!Something your party is clearly unable to get any sort of publicity on, in fact almost anything. I am not making that comment as a dig at your organisation. Which leads me onto my next point/question.

It was very interesting to discover your party's survey and vote on the future of the TV Licence with the added optional question of "Should the BBC be axed ?" on the main BNP website.

Would the axing of the BBC be a priority for the BNP ? It has been so politically biased towards Labour since the mid 1980's especially.

An interesting subject and survey.

Anonymous said...

Once again Jonathan showing his far right leanings.

Anonymous said...

Jonathan will like to hear this, Jonathan doesn`t like postal workers.

3 February 2009

"Britain: Royal Mail faces privatisation and jobs massacre"...

http://tinyurl.com/dhpuey

Anonymous said...

Hey there Suzanne,

I think it is about time the BBC and other media organisations in Britain faced the cold draft of globalisation which Peter Mandelson, Gordon Brown and Jonathan in his post so fanatically support.

Then we would hear some squeals of protest, methinks!

Anonymous said...

Interesting comments and allegations from the union leader Derek Simpson on Breakfast this morning.

So, the BNP has it's members and workers steering up racial hatred and ill feeling at the protests over foreign workers on a contract in Lincolnshire ? The BNP leadership is being conspiculously silent on those allegations this morning.

Anonymous said...

Did they invite the BNP leader on as well?

Nope!

That looks like your reason then.

Anonymous said...

Did the BNP leadership try??? I bet not!!!