I can’t help but sense the irony in the news today. In one article you have the news of oil refinery staff going on strike because of a contract given to an Italian firm (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7859968.stm). The govenment quotes:

Environment Secretary Hilary Benn said the angry British workers were “entitled to an answer”.

Later the prime minister’s spokesman said the government would hold talks with the construction industry in the next few days “to ensure they are doing all they can to support the UK economy”.

However, you then get the Prime Minister Gordon Brown warning world leaders of the dangers of creeping protectionism (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/davos/7860065.stm).

I fully agree with Mr Brown that the Global community needs to step forward and seek to help each other. We can’t just be protecting our own. But with this we also have to accept that contracts are also been given to companies outside the UK. I feel for the unemployed skilled workers who have been over looked for this refinery role, but its not as if Total are getting cheap workers from elsewhere.

We do need to be careful of protectionism, but we need to heed that warning as well.