Now is the winter of our discontent

[ace00]

Brown Faces Winter of Discontent as U.K. Workers’ Anger Mounts

Feb. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Spreading strikes, reduced workweeks and tens of thousands of job cuts are throwing British Prime Minister Gordon Brown back to the 1970s.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...Hzk&refer=home

Scary article - we're doomed, doomed I tell you.

[FSM with Cheddar]

throwing British Prime Minister Gordon Brown back to the 1970s.

His hair cut never left.

[Pogle]

His hair cut never left.

[sunnysan]

Snotty

The way I see it he is scr3wed. (Thank heavens for that)

I think the damage is done with the skilled workers so now with nasueating predictablity, a fudge will be implemented which will not do enough to appease the section of the elctorate that are aggrieved, alienate and confuse foreign companies on what they can and cannot do in the UK and most importantly that free trade in the EU is negotiable.

As slimy as Mandelson is, I begrudingly have to agree with the hard line he takes on this, although the xenophobia claim did a lot of damage and he probably would have maintained more credibility by sticking with the free trade argument.

National independence is by its nature at odds with the principles of the EU and the "foreign labour" in question raises this issue, which I think can be summed up in one statement. Is England a federal state within the EU or is it an independent country?

I personally think for all intents and purposes, it is the former and becoming more so.

The government cannot support their own people in this and be pro EU at the same time. The people that will be most affected by the EU will be Labours traditional supporters.

Because of this the outcome of this will be obfustication of the real issues as the government cannot take a clear line on this becuase either way they have too much to lose.

[expat]

National independence is by its nature at odds with the principles of the EU and the "foreign labour" in question raises this issue, which I think can be summed up in one statement. Is England a federal state within the EU or is it an independent country?

Constituent nation of the United Kingdom.

[shaunbhoy]

Constipated nation of the United Kingdom.

HTH

[suityou01]

Ok lets see

Rise of the BNP support. Check.
Foreign workers taking jobs. Check.
Strikes. Check.
High levels of immigration and hence lots of immigrants. Check.
Civil unrest. TBA.

Circling the plug hole?

I have no xenophobic tendencies, but I do see a storm brewing because of these factors.