A contract for work at the Total plant in Lincolnshire has been awarded to an Italian company which has imported its own Italian and Portugese workers to carry out the work. Naturally this has not pleased UK workers resident in the vicinity of the plant who would have been available. Their dissatisfaction is mirrored in almost a dozen other sites around the country.

The British Government has correctly pointed out that free movement of labour and capital are a founding principle of the European Union. That has always been presented as one of the advantages of membership. The implications have only recently become apparent. In recent times there have been instances in Scandinavia and the Baltic States in which ‘foreign' workers have been imported by contractors at wage rates applicable in their country of origin. This upset the Swedes and the Finns who were told in a European Court of Justice ruling that they had no cause to complain. This is what is being argued by the authorities in response to strikes by the affected workers in Lincolnshire supported by colleagues around the UK.

It is said that in the United Kingdom case the ‘foreign' workers are being paid the UK rates. In this case, however, the contractor has also imported floating hotel accommodation for its staff which is unlikely to be provided free. Therefore the actual cost of labour to the company can be regulated by the amount charged for accommodation. Obviously there has to be an advantage to the company in importing staff (other than providing work for its own nationals) to an area where suitable skills are already available.

There is a naïve belief amongst Europhiles that in the European Union all is sweetness and light. Outside the UK, where EU rules are observed to the letter and sometimes even gold plated, such rules are seen as to be used for national advantage or otherwise ignored. The French cripple the EU by defending resolutely the CAP which was designed to benefit French farmers, and still does, at the same time as they illegally subsidize and protect their industries, fail to pay compensation and ignore European fines for transgressions. Italy is the home of Roman Catholicism and the Mafia. It is a corrupt society where what you can get away with is the guiding principle. Others are no better. There is virtually no immigration control applicable to citizens of the EU. The British Government no longer controls immigration from the rest of the world. These are parallel situations concerning which the British electorate has barely been informed, let alone consulted.

It is also evidence, hitherto largely concealed, of the extent to which jurisdiction has been passed from Westminster to Brussels. It is of no use British politicians raising their hands and blaming it all on Brussels. It is British politicians who gave them the power and their leaders certainly knew what they were doing and seek to extend in the Lisbon Treaty. They can hardly complain if it is their necks on the block. They have covertly abandoned a contract which has stood for centuries between electors and elected. Electors have expected those whom they elect to take care of their interests. No more. They have regard to a wider picture in which their electors are not the predominant concern.

The British people are at last being confronted by the facts of what has been done by deception. They are not likely to be over the moon in common parlance. Nor are the British alone. The Irish, the Portugese, the Spaniards, the Italians and the Greeks are all crippled by their involvement in the EU to an extent that Britain is not, having rejected the Euro. The Germans are finding that in addition to their own problems they are expected to carry the Mediterranean states. The disparate, separate, distinct nations which have been thrown together hugger mugger in this artificial union are very unhappy.

Political establishments across Europe will be desperate to defend a system they have created which is largely for their benefit and hardly anybody else's. Time will tell whether the present financial turmoil will sweep it away. Already there are violent anti government demonstrations from Madrid to Sofia as well as in Baltic States and in Eastern Europe. Faced with uncontrollable fury the pressure for disintegration as politicians try to save their own skins will be immense. There is no sense of Europeanness amongst the nations to keep the EU alive. A similar organization, the Soviet Union, collapsed in short order. The nations, on the other hand, are almost as old as history. We live in interesting times.

FOOTNOTE
 
That extraordinary fellow Lord Mandelson betrays his Marxist lineage by accusing the Trade Unions of that most heinous of crimes in the eyes of marxists - xenophobia. The fact that it is a trumped up charge is par for the course. He does not realise or prefers to ignore the fact that had that workforce been recruited exclusively in Nottingham or Yorkshire the reaction would have been similar. The fact that the 'foreigners' in this case happen to be Italian and Portugese adds a little spice and excites the ideologues.