Arise, the new Baltic state of East Anglia

[milanbenes]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article...938254,00.html

some nice quotes from the article...


They work eight hours a day on the production line packaging frozen chickens and earning the minimum wage of £5.05 an hour. Even after paying the rent for their flat in Great Yarmouth 35 miles away they earn £100 a week each, equivalent to the monthly wage in Lithuania.

Clive Beecham, managing director of Kinnerton, said: “I think they are a fantastic workforce and that is largely because they are over here for one reason and that is to work.”

Sheila Childerhouse, a board member of the East of England Development Agency, which commissioned the report into the economic impact of the migrant workers, said: “We want to ensure that the contribution of migrant workers is valued and understood. Even though they send money home they actually contribute more money per head to the region’s economy than local people.”


Future's bright,

Milan.

[NoddY]

Didn't modernism promise us that one day machines would do such things [packing frozen chickens etc]?

Moral arguments aside (for now) - I would like to pose this question: is this really a constructive use of human resources? What are the flaws in our economic system that allow this?

[milanbenes]

well it pays the bills dunnit

Milan.

[DodgyAgent]

Didn't modernism promise us that one day machines would do such things [packing frozen chickens etc]?

Moral arguments aside (for now) - I would like to pose this question: is this really a constructive use of human resources? What are the flaws in our economic system that allow this?

what on earth has morality got to do with this? Surely if these processes can be done by machines then they would be.

[stackpole]

This is all down to enlargement of the EU, which is another one of Blair's hobby horses, isn't it. I wonder why.

1. To gain more allies against the French and Germans?

2. To increase the potential market for UK goods?

3. To increase the size of the European empire when he becomes president of it?

4. Any other ideas?

[threaded]

You'd be amazed how much of the frozen chicken stuff is automated. Do you know they used to have people to round the chickens up, tie the feet, hang them up? This can now be done by one machine built into the chicken house. It looks like a big big hoover.

[SupremeSpod]

You'd be amazed how much of the frozen chicken stuff is automated. Do you know they used to have people to round the chickens up, tie the feet, hang them up? This can now be done by one machine built into the chicken house. It looks like a big big hoover.

One of your designs eh, Threaded? From "on the hoof" to pie in the shortest time possible...

[NoddY]

what on earth has morality got to do with this?

No, your right. I forgot we all have to develop our own personal morality and it was wrong of me to project mine upon these boards. It was also wrong of me to assume that parts of others personal morality overlaps with mine. I apologise for impinging upon your personal indiviual mindspace.

[DodgyAgent]

No, your right. I forgot we all have to develop our own personal morality and it was wrong of me to project mine upon these boards. It was also wrong of me to assume that parts of others personal morality overlaps with mine. I apologise for impinging upon your personal indiviual mindspace.

You didnt even bother to explain your morality so no need to sulk

[OwlHoot]

This is all down to enlargement of the EU, which is another one of Blair's hobby horses, isn't it. I wonder why.

1. To gain more allies against the French and Germans?

2. To increase the potential market for UK goods?

3. To increase the size of the European empire when he becomes president of it?

4. Any other ideas?

I thought at one point the underlying goal of British foreign policy was to encourage the EU to expand so much that it would become diluted to the point of meaningless and hopefully fizzle away, in other words to sabotage it from the inside.

But it's simplistic to think everyone could be unanimous in wanting any particular outcome, especially one like that, as some of the thicker politicians, labour and otherwise, genuinely seem to want the EU to prosper.