Monday, March 15, 2010

British Jobs for British Workers?

I was struck by the story on the front page of yesterday's Mail on Sunday in which it was reported that an East Anglian meat packing company, Forza, was advertising for workers. A pre-requisite for the job was the ability to speak Polish.

Was this what Gordon Brown meant by "British Jobs for British Workers"?

9 comments:

OldSlaughter said...

All this talk of 'meat packing' and 'wanting it both ways' is making come over all funny.

IanVisits said...

Or to put the headline another way.

"British Workers Complain When Told They Lack Necessary Skills"

I wonder if the Mail would have run the headline if the people had been told they needed to be able to understand grep, sudo, chmod and chown (all used in IT) instead of Polish?

Anonymous said...

/Actually there are quite a few Brits who speak Polish, not least the children and the grandchildren of the brave Polish airforce patriots who fought and died in large numbers alongside the British forces in World War II.

Moriarty said...

Which planet is it that IanVisits has visited us from?

Anonymous said...

"IanVisits
I wonder if the Mail would have run the headline if the people had been told they needed to be able to understand grep, sudo, chmod and chown (all used in IT) instead of Polish?"

Hardly likely unless your a programmer or sysadmin on a UNIX system.

Mulligan said...

adloyada.

Since we declared war in support of Poland in the first place, wouldn't you have expected them to have fought alongside our forces??

In any case all rather irrelevant to the point being made I'd have thought.

Wrinkled Weasel said...

You have to look a long way behind that headline. East Anglia has a very long history of exploiting cheap labour. Everyone I know, including me, has worked on the land and earned peanuts for long, backbreaking days. My last job, as a youth, was in a vegetable processing factory, working a compulsory 12 hour shift in freezing, wet conditions. I think I lasted three shifts, but a lot of people had to do this for a living. That was nearly 40 years ago, but little has changed. All that has really changed is the attitude of local people, who prefer to live on state benefits - not an easy option when I was a lad.

People go to Asda and wonder how they can sell a chicken for £2. Well to coin a phrase; because it's crap.

The people at Forza are taking meat products from God knows where and doing God knows what with them, in order that some poor bugger can feed re-constituted slurry to their children, and still have enough left over for 40 Lambert and Butler.

The issue is not really "British Jobs for British Workers" because these are jobs most British do not want. And neither is it the fault of dirty business men, but market forces. A lot of rather ignorant people think that they can get away with buying cheap food of dubious origin, and perhaps they can. There are always enough chemicals to preserve rotten food and make it taste better, and a lot of desperate people in the world who are prepared to make it.

Martin S said...

IanVisits... what ARE you on?

BNPELECTIONRESULTS said...

Have you been reading my blog? Reported on that this morning.

If you have have followed my blog you would have seen the two replies to a question I had over the weekend. How would a party react by allowing people to join who did not believe in the party.

Had two interesting replies. One from Nigel Farage, saying they would not allow ex or existing members of extreme parties join. Funny considering how Nikki Sinclaire left UKIP because of them being close to extreme groups in Europe.

A much more considered response from PC which actually highlighted one issue.

"It is a matter of conscience whether or not you feel it is right to join a party whose aims you do not support."

So why should the BNP change to fit the person who joins?

It is a matter of conscience for that person whether or not they want to join we are not forcing people to join.

Your thoughts...