Transcript of Thought For the World’s thought for the day

Polly Toynbee

20th February 2009

As recession darkens and threatens to become depression, difficult questions, suppressed in the good years, are thrown into sharp relief. Who’s to blame? Obviously overpaid bankers are very satisfying enemies, but a more ominous target is emerging - foreigners - foreign workers taking British jobs. The sight of strikers waving placards bearing Gordon Brown’s ill-chosen populist words stirs great fears and memories of the rise of Hitler, blaming Jews for the hardship of others in a deep depression. Could we be seeing the first dismal stirrings here and now?

The protests have shifted from Lincolnshire to the Isle of Grain, where local workers are protesting at a building contract given to a Polish firm importing Polish workers. Trade unions are receiving complaints of many similar deals excluding local British workers. With unemployment at almost two million, it’s not surprising.

In the good years, opening Europe was a great leap forward. It underpinned some of the wealth created. The government claimed it brought in an extra two million pounds a year. In the days of little unemployment, it was a dormant, but never quite dead, issue. Now it’s in danger of erupting. What are we to think?

Those of us who welcomed the great opening up of Europe, preventing those old tribal European world wars that tore apart the last century, need to think honestly about this. It’s not enough to dismiss these protests as anti-European xenophobic scapegoating, for the fact is the effect of migrant workers falls on the lower paid.

Be blunt - there are no contractors bringing Lithuanians or Estonians crowding into the Guardian to displace British journalists from our jobs, nor are they bustling in to other professions. It’s easy to be magnanimous with other people’s jobs.

At the root of the problem is the same old British disease. In the good times, the great gains were shared more unequally here, the lower paid falling out of work, suffering far more.

In bad times, redistributing wealth is even more important, but you hear very few politicians willing to say so. Unless we can find the spirit of sharing, then we can expect outbursts against those who may be the wrong targets.

We need to do far more to protect the most vulnerable by creating jobs, building up infrastructure, even if it means taxing those who are not suffering significantly more.

For those in secure work, these are good times, with low prices, near-zero inflation, and they can afford to share with those falling out of work, or else face growing social unrest, often directed at foreigners, when it should be directed at those doing well but not sharing the proceeds.

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