“Global Problems Require”…Foreigners Go Home

Despite the atrocious weather today, the unofficial strikes over “foreign” workers have recommenced.  Sellafield workers have now joined in.  Or, as the BBC inadvertently amusingly headlines:

That’s how angry they are: they are about to go nuclear.  But the other day, the obviously NOT protectionist “British jobs for British workers” (or is it “global solutions to global problems?”: his fondness for trite expressions is proving his undoing) Mr Brown was worried, according to the WSJ:

Brown Warns Global Economy Is Slipping into Financial Protectionism

Also, if he glances over a shoulder, Mr Brown may notice that chill at his back is not due to today’s snowfall.  His Britain is socially slipping into a land of workmen sharpening their power tools, apparently hoping to drive out blo-dy “foreigners.”  Yet, strangely, amidst all the flying verbiage, the Prime Minister has apparently had nothing to say about having uttered the “British jobs for British workers” whopper in the first place.

If not directly addressed itself, the rest of the cascading rhetoric included a masterful appraisal from Lord Mandelson — thus how far the House of Lords hath fallen, under Labour — pointing out helpfully that, under the EU, British workers can work on the continent of course.

One suspects a run, then, on unemployed British refinery workers seeking to open gites in France.  Or using their increased downtime to polish off those applications they plan to send in seeking EU commissionerships.  The latter would be particularly a “business” role about which Business Secretary Lord Mandelson could certainly advise them.

However, according to the BBC, if he hasn’t directly addressed the “British jobs for British workers” mantra (now his most famous utterance ever), the Prime Minister himself has had lots of other things to say, including:

…”what we’ve got to do over time, as I’ve always said, is that where there are jobs in this country, we need people with the skills, developed in this country”…

Meaning, in other words, “British jobs for British workers?”

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UPDATE, February 3:  The best overall analysis thus far on this sorry situation comes to us from David Aaronovitch in The Times.

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UPDATE 2:  Maurizio is willing to return to Italy, but he has one small request . . .