British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has rejected protectionist measures to mitigate the effects of the present world economic crisis and has condemned the anti-globalization lobby as ignorant and misguided. He and Lord Mandelson, the minister responsible for business affairs and a former EU commissioner, have called for renewed efforts to revive the Doha round of world trade negotiations. They are right, but so far world leaders, while paying lip-service to such sentiments, have often said and done things that encourage protectionism.
Brown has made some gaffes that suggest that he is not as enthusiastic an internationalist as he claims to be. Not so long ago he said that he wanted to create "British jobs for British workers." This remark has come to haunt him. A row has broken out at a French company's oil refinery in Britain where Italian workers have been brought in to do a construction job when British workers were available. British trade unionists have been demonstrating both at the plant and elsewhere demanding that Brown fulfill his promise. Industrial unrest could spread.
Brown has responded that his remarks had been misinterpreted and has condemned the demonstrators as irresponsible. The British government are not in a position to frustrate the decision of the contractors to bring in Italian workers as EU nationals can move freely and work in any EU country.