Gordon Brown's slogan "British Jobs for British Workers", which was heavily criticised as a clumsy Labour party conference 2007 attempt to "triangulate" political support away from the BNP and other extremists from amongst "the workers", seems to have come back to haunt him.
This former National Front slogan is being thrown back in Gordon's face, following his inept handling of the economy, and is being used as the rallying cry for the "unofficial" strikes and walkouts at oil refineries and possibly nuclear industry sites.
e.g. The Sunday Mirror reports: Gordon Brown slams wildcat strikes as more workers plan to walk out
Gordon Brown was personally in charge of failing to properly regulate the banking system, and he still seems to be micro managing and meddling in the economy, keeping his sock puppet of a Chancellor of the Exchequer Alastair Darling out of any media soundbites.
The industrial action has been concentrated amongst construction workers, protesting about the use of foreign labour, brought in perfectly legally by sub-contacting companies from other European Union countries like Italy or Portugal. When there was a shortage of such skilled labour, nobody complained, but now that Gordon Brown's policies have led to an economic recession, the inevitable pressure in the jobs market is on.
At the moment, the walkouts and demonstrations are "unofficial", and as such, reflect massive discontent with the trades union leaders who fund the Labour party, as well as with the Government and employers.
If the production workers, as well as the construction and maintenance workers, at these affected energy plants refuse to cross the picket lines or come out in sympathy, then the usual media hysteria will probably lead to panic buying and fuel shortages at petrol stations, again
Remember also that the Fuel Duty is set to rise, yet again, in April,
Already there is a media spin and disinformation campaign, with lots of stories explaining that the French multinational oil company Total, at the centre of the dispute is not actively discriminating illegally against British workers
Labour politicians are again giving the extremist xenophobic views of the BNP far more oxygen of publicity than they would otherwise have achieved, by their strenuous denials that there is any discrimination against British workers - trust in this Government is so low, after so much spin and disinformation, that many people now automatically assume that they must be lying.
The Labour Government appears to have no clue about what to do: the disgraced Cabinet Minister Lord Mandelson is making Norman Tebbit like "get on your bike" noises about the mobility of labour throughout the European Union, but his former trades union leader colleagues like the Alan Johnson are, in contrast, calling for some sort of protectionism.
The Times: More strikes loom in row over hiring foreign workers at low wages
Is it really just a coincidence that the classic comedy series Auf Wiedersehen, Pet is being re-run at this particular time, on the ? Is it being aired now to remind people that British workers do benefit from the free movement of labour within the European Union (who are the commercial advertisers or sponsors for this re-run ?)
It is hard to say if online websites, which were devoted to industry specific news like www.ukwelder.com, have been taken by surprise by the depth of feeling on their discussion forums, or if they have been deliberately targeted by extremists and online trolls. It seems that they have decided to censor these comments, possibly as a result of legal or other pressure:
The UKWelder forum was established to provide a platform for the discussion of welding and welding related subjects. Of late a number of non welding posts have appeared that threaten the continued existence of this website. To ensure that this site stays online we must ask users to refrain from posting non welding topics.
There do still seem to be other online discussion forums about these strikes, for instance at The Bear Facts, who are trying to be non-political party aligned and non-racist, but who are clearly sending back to Gordon Brown his "British Jobs for British Workers" slogan.
This website may be ;less slightly less susceptible to censorship, as it is hosted outside of the United Kingdom in Denmark.
Apparently, even though the trades unions are not "officially" supporting these disputes, they are apparently, according to The Times meeting with the Government:
Thursday: Union delegation meets MPs and goes to Downing Street to talk about the industrial strife
Is this just sneaky evasion of the trades union dispute laws, which require secret ballots of members etc. before industrial action, and no secondary picketing etc., or are the union leaders again selling out the interests of their members to the Government and the big business employers ?
There seems to be talk of "a march on Parliament" to coincide with this meeting, but who exactly is organising this is a mystery - is it local trades union branch officials or someone else, in order to put pressure on the trades union leaders and Labour party politicians ?
Given the "political intelligence" gathering capabilities of the "snooper state", and by private investigators and infiltrators employed by big businesses, it would be wise for anyone organising, or even reporting on, such protests or strikes, to take some elementary precautions with their mobile phone and email communications and physical meetings: e.g. Hints and Tips for whistleblowers, journalists, bloggers and political activists
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