British Jobs For British Workers ?

The headline story on the WT last Wednesday (and page 5 of Thursday's Mercury!) was about the Aberdare grandmother, Janette Leonard from Aberdare, who organised (via a Facebook group) the protest at the site of the new Pembroke Power Station calling for more jobs for British workers.

Questions come to me as no one seems to ask them, so we don't get answers! My main issue was why a person from Aberdare was so concerned about a site, 82.8 miles away (AA Route Planner provided me with the distance). Equally, I am sure that people in Aberdare would be wondering why I was supporting calls to build a Sainsbury's supermrket in their town. As far as I am aware, there are no plans for Sainsbury's to locate there and there certainly isn't a store there now... I have checked...

I used Google and found that a Janette Leonard from Aberdare created an e-petition on the Number 10 web-site (like I have in the past!) which has attracted 140 signatures. The wording of the petition, "We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to keep his promise of British jobs for British workers".

The preamble says "The Pembroke Power Station is about to be built, and to date no British workers have been taken on to work there. Currently we understand that only 40 Polish workers have been taken on to work nightshifts. While this petition understands the need for economic migration in certain circumstances, in this situation there are more than enough British workers to be employed on the site. We urge the Prime Minister to honour his promise of giving British jobs to British workmen and women".

I think its fairly safe to assume that the protest leader and the petitioner are one and the same.

On the TV news report, local MP Nick Ainger quoted figures of British and non-British people working on the site. So either Nick Ainger or the protestors were wrong. I am not going to take sides!

The next question was why in the WT photograph could I count 29 protest pages saying "British Jobs for British Workers", with the "Daily Star" at the top of each one. I counted 30 in the Mercury.

Why does the Daily Star appear in the protest. That paper comes under the same umbrella as the Daily Express. This leads onto whether there is any political motive behind the protest. If so, who an what party?

If anyone saw the excellent programme on BBC1 on Wednesday 24th February hosted by Evan Davies, called "THE DAY THE IMMIGRANTS LEFT", I can understand why some employers take on foreign workers.

The programme asked for unemployed people in the Wisbech area of the Fens to apply for 12 jobs currently done by foreign workers. 12 were eventually selected and whilst some held there own on the trial period, others failed to reach the standard of those they replaced and one guy didn't even bother to turn up at all and others made feeble excuses for non-attendance. For the own who failed to turn up, maybe the local DSS office will be now considering whether to stop his benefits.

I can now see why employers offer jobs to foreign workers and no doubt after the 2010 General Election, whoever is the Government will be reviewing benefits and who should get them.

In the WT and the Mercury, Npower and Alstom (the main contractor) make clear their commitment to the local community and that companies and jobs will be involved in the project, from the start.

In response, many of the protestors say they do not believe the figures given.

Who do we believe? Well, I had to laugh when I saw on the same page in the Mercury as their story reporting the protest, there is a quarter page advert by Npower offering "new career opportunities at Pembroke Power Station". A similar advert from Npower is also to be found on page 24 and page 76 of the WT. As it takes time to get a job advert in the papers, presumably they were placed by Npower before the protest.

The e-petition seem to suggest we should have few foreign workers in Britain. However, the petitioner needs to remember that under EU rules, workers from EU nations are able to take jobs in this country, as much as any British person may chose to go and work in Germany, France, Poland or any other Eastern European nation.

Thankfully, we live in a democracy and whilst the protestors are permitted to hold their protest, I am able to make my comments and ask my questions, along with the freedom to think.