I do not think it smacks of racism.There is far more to it than that. As they are asking for british workers for british jobs. British workers cant apply if the group which has one the contract decided to use there work force
( so the jobs are not there are they?) as is the right of all british companies abroad not just in the eu to use its own workforce.
It seems to smack of we want to work in your countries but you cant do the same in mine . As for the jobs that do get offered the brits say the pay is not enough ? . Speaking as an employer i will pay want i want to pay my staff if they do not like it then move on .
This could very easily blow up in many brits faces especially if the other countries where brits have worked with out trouble for years are asked to go back home .ALL smacks of double standards to me .

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We are encouraged to shop locally and to buy local produce; some people may prefer to do this even if it is more expensive, in order to demonstrate loyalty and benefit their community. Why should it be any different when it comes to employing people? And when you think of the distances foreign workers may travel to come here, surely employing locals can also be greener.

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If a British person of afro-caribbean, Indian, Pakistani, or any other non-caucasian origin were to use this phrase, would that be considered racist?

Being nationalistic and being racist are not the same thing. Perhaps the fact that nationalism has been adopted and corrupted by political parties that hold racist views has confused some people.

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Europe are our masters!

Accept it!

You elect these clowns.

Not so Great Britain

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Surely it HAS to be British jobs for British people!!!!

This is not racist just pure common sense

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It seems in the current climate of job losses that we have lost sight of the bigger picture. Okay there are illegals that slip the net and somehow manage to get jobs but there are also now just under 2 million people unemployed due to the big bankers who cause the credit crunch or recession whichever name it is going by today. At the end of the day it is the employers decision on who he/she employs. If a big national or even a multi-national companies looks at tenders not only from the UK but Europe etc and one is more cost effective then they are going to choose the economically viable option and that will put peoples noses out of joint but what can you do.

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Sorry if this is a bit long winded, hopefully it will give you an insight as to what is going on .

WHAT IS GATS?
The General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) is an international trade agreement that came into effect in 1995 and operates under the umbrella of the World Trade Organization (WTO).
The aim of the GATS is to gradually remove all barriers to trade in services. The agreement covers services as diverse as banking, education, healthcare, rubbish collection, tourism or transport.
The idea is to open up these services to international competition, allowing the way for huge, for-profit, multinational firms.
“The GATS is not just something that exists between Governments. It is first and foremost an instrument for the benefit of business”

European Commission, 1999
Since February 2000, negotiations are underway in the WTO to expand and ‘fine-tune’ the GATS. These negotiations have aroused concern world-wide. A growing number of local governments, trade unions, NGOs, parliaments and developing country governments are criticising the GATS negotiations and call for a halt on the negotiations.
Their main points of critique:
Negative impacts on universal access to basic services such as healthcare, education, water and transport.
Fundamental conflict between freeing up trade in services and the right of governments and communities to regulate companies in areas such as tourism, retail, telecommunications and broadcasting.
Absence of a comprehensive assessment of the impacts of GATS-style liberalisation before further negotiations continue.
A one-sided deal. GATS is primarily about expanding opportunities for large multinational companies.
=============================================
GATS 2
Mandelson`s trade offer re migrant labour from 150 countries.
Quote
Although it seems to have slipped Mandelson’s mind, to the extent that through all this action he hasn’t mentioned it, he has in fact made an offer to open up to skilled labour from 150 countries outside of the EU, in addition to the commitment to free movement of labour within the EU.

He made this offer in his role as EU TRade Commissioner, as part of the EU offer under the WTO General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). It remains the current EU GATS offer.

India pushed the hardest for this labour entry, on behalf of its multinationals, but under the WTO Most Favoured Nation rule, what’s offered to one country is offered to all 150 WTO member states.

The offer is for skilled, temporary migrant labour. There are no numerical limits, and no Economic Means Test, that is the requirement for an employer to offer work to UK workers first. Although the European Court of Justice Viking/Laval decision established that the minimum wage holds where there is one, the Indian government is pushing for this to be disregarded, as it undercuts the ‘comparative advantage’ of cheap labour. But even if the minimum wage holds, that’s not much for skilled workers to be in competition with.

The offer will become commitment, and irreversible – as trade agreement commitments are – when the GATS Round negotiations are agreed. This could happen in the next few months. The GATS negotiations have been considered to be part of the ‘single undertaking’ of the Doha trade Round, though all the focus has been kept on Agriculture and manufactured goods, and off services. Through a technicality though, the GATS can be agreed even if these other parts are not agreed. So it could slip through quite easily.

In the GATS, services are in 12 categories, covering just about everything, including Construction, Distribution, Health Related, Educational, Business (includes financial services), Tourism and Sporting, Environmental (includes energy waste etc). There is even an ‘other’ category.

It is being reported overseas that Gordon Brown is a main proponent for getting this deal signed up, though that is not being emphasised in this country.

Apart from the ‘Mode 4′ ‘movement of natural persons’ part, finalising this GATS Round will make all the public service privatisations irreversible. It will prevent any reregulation of financial services (note that for all the talk, there hasn’t actually been any reregulation), and it will prevent any nationalisations, again, despite the talk, or whether they are needed.

Mandelson should be called to account for the offer he has put on the table, and his failure to inform the people who be affected – and are paying his wages.

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Britain is a magnet for all the worlds criminals, asylum seekers and foreign workers just because of our benefit system

They all believe when they get here it is the land of milk and honey, and for the foreigners it is

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One of the reasons that fewer British workers perhaps work abroad than foreign workers come to work here is our truly appalling record at/attitude to learning foreign languages. If we were as good at that as many immigrants to this country, we’d be in a better position to seek work elsewhere.

Interestingly, the job losses affecting BMW agency workers at Cowley yesterday seemed to hit a large number of foreign workers. We see much attempting to blame the EU for workers’ predicament, yet the irony is that in that case, if we had fully implemented European law, those workers would have had a much greater level of protection, as agency workers do in France and Germany.

We didn’t fully implement these rules, as we haven’t with the working time directive, because those on the political right have sought to preserve the right of employers to exploit their workers, supposedly as a ‘competitive advantage’. I suppose it boils down to whether or not you want a high-skill high-wage economy, or a sweatshop economy.

As for the BNP believing in British jobs for British workers, I don’t think they believe in British jobs for all British workers do they – only for those who have a certain match on a colour chart.

Any party that only seeks to represent people on criteria as arbitrary as skin colour or ethnic orogin really cannot consider itself in any way democratic, nor as a legitimate part of the democratic process.

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Nice to see all those supporters of Mandy pledging their allegiance on this board – we should send him to China and see how well he does with them when he isnt holding our purse strings…

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Peter – Why do you even bother to mention skin colour? May I remind that the vast majority of Italians and Portugese are White.

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adam.h said: Feb 18th, 2009 at 3:45 pm maureen- we would have been a better nation now if we had joined and given in to hitler!!!

Quite right Adam, if we had capitulated to Hilter, the MG Rover plant would be turning out Porches for the masses. But then we wouldn’t have years of enjoyment watching repeats of Dads Army. There’s no perfect solution to political problems.

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It is time to train British workers for the British jobs that will be available over the coming few years and to make sure that people who are inactive and unemployed are able to get the new jobs on offer in our country.

There’s something we can all get behind (although what jobs will be available in the coming few years in debatable and the whole thing is a bit on the wishy-washy side), and that’s what GB actually said, not the sound-bite in isolation. Not one to defend the man, but to defend what was actually said – train Britons to be the employees the employers want. Although, maybe I’m being cynical, but the employees they want will always be the neediest and ergo the cheapest.

Off topic, although some have shoehorned it in, I assume some of the posters are referring to bogus asylum seekers, not genuine asylum seekers when decrying them.

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Peter
The Nu Labour spin machine you promote is the worst administration our country has seen. The true cost of their failure is frightening.
It will take a shoehorn to get the idiots out, but we must at all cost!!
Please don’t patronise us by blaming Maggie!!!!
Enough is enough, so much tax so much waste!!!!

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Gareth: Its all down to the rate of exchange. These Poles work like…..errr….very hard because to them when they thake the money home it is a fortune.
I’d pick strawberries in Poland if I could bring the cash back and buy a flat outright with it.
It’s nothing to do with their culture and work ethic – its simple economics.
Nevertheless, good luck to them, the Poles deserve a break after the way the UK treated them after the war.

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Nelson,

You have shown before that you are quite incapable of debate. That’s hardly surprising since you are by nature and party of choice, clearly not a democrat. Democrats whether Labour or Conservative should always be vigilant about fascist parties such as the BNP. Like religious extremists they’re a threat to our democracy.

The BNP will lose deposits across the country in any general election. It’s a pity that their poor quality councillors get elected here and there, by people who don’t understand the true nature of what they are voting for.
As for the political face of Britain ‘changing forever’ – dream on!

Drewp – I don’t consider the large sums spent on primary schools and the NHS wasted.

Andy, I think there is a real threat to the IT industry in sending our jobs to offshore locations, or bringing in low-cost contractors, but this is the fault of the Global IT companies who were given former UK government IT jobs by the previous administration back in the mid-’90s. Once that door was opened, it was bound to happen.

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