The UK Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform has recently made some disparaging comments on British companies (unable to run enterprises like the Royal Mail) and workers (unwilling to perform jobs which are done by foreign labour). Whilst there may be some grains of truth in these sentiments, the problems are ones in whose creation successive New Labour governments have played a pivotal role.
For instance, the cronyism for which New Labour is famous has become increasingly ingrained in British management culture, reducing the commercial and industrial gene-bank which Lord Mandelson has identified as deficient in the skills to run the Royal Mail. Cronyism has always been a significant feature of British business and public institutions, and the governments of Blair and Brown have re-inforced this structural problem, which has made no small contribution to the current UK banking crisis.
With regard to the apparently increasing reluctance of British workers to undertake certain types of employment, the fact is that the culture of New Labour (and of this country) stigmatises many essential jobs as unworthy for aspirational indigen(t/e)s. However, this is not the full story. Many employers prefer foreign workers for a host of reasons, including, in some cases, their inability to speak English, and, therefore, articulate health, safety and other genuine concerns.
Many of us would welcome a labour market based far more on genuine merit, however grand or, quite simply, essential the positions involved. Many of us believed that the election of a New Labour Government in 1997 would bring this much hoped for meritocracy. How wrong we were to expect the architects of New Labour like Lord Peter Mandelson to deliver this, or very much else of any real worth for that matter.
For instance, the cronyism for which New Labour is famous has become increasingly ingrained in British management culture, reducing the commercial and industrial gene-bank which Lord Mandelson has identified as deficient in the skills to run the Royal Mail. Cronyism has always been a significant feature of British business and public institutions, and the governments of Blair and Brown have re-inforced this structural problem, which has made no small contribution to the current UK banking crisis.
With regard to the apparently increasing reluctance of British workers to undertake certain types of employment, the fact is that the culture of New Labour (and of this country) stigmatises many essential jobs as unworthy for aspirational indigen(t/e)s. However, this is not the full story. Many employers prefer foreign workers for a host of reasons, including, in some cases, their inability to speak English, and, therefore, articulate health, safety and other genuine concerns.
Many of us would welcome a labour market based far more on genuine merit, however grand or, quite simply, essential the positions involved. Many of us believed that the election of a New Labour Government in 1997 would bring this much hoped for meritocracy. How wrong we were to expect the architects of New Labour like Lord Peter Mandelson to deliver this, or very much else of any real worth for that matter.
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