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Letter: All-round failure is to blame for long-term unemployment

Mrs Virginia Taylor
Thursday 01 July 1993 23:02 BST
Comments

Sir: Lord Skidelsky ('Factory bargains and mobile homes', 30 June) has hit the nail on the head when he says that 'we need the Maastricht treaty's Social Chapter like a bullet in the head]'. I commend the article to Carole Tongue, MEP (Letters, 23 June), who does not seem to understand the basic laws of economics.

The indisputable fact is that the EC is increasingly uncompetitive with the rest of the world. It has 17 million unemployed and rising. Against this background this is clearly not the time to saddle ourselves with rocketing labour and social costs, nor with increasing rules and regulations. Britain has rightly opted out of the Social Chapter and, increasingly, other European countries are beginning to have their doubts.

Lord Skidelsky has made a compelling case for subsidiarity in wage bargaining at plant rather than national level and for better employer-

worker relations within individual firms. Britain, by not signing up to the Social Chapter, has ensured that matters concerning industrial relations and social provision remain under the remit of our own Parliament. But Carole Tongue wants to level the playing field so that all international trade agreements include a 'social clause . . . on (inter alia) wages (and) conditions . . .'. Nothing could be more misconceived. If you impose costly social and employment conditions and dictate employer/employee relations, you choke competition and our competitiveness with the rest of the world, which simply leads to even fewer jobs.

But, of course, attacking rising costs does not mean a return to Dickensian Britain. We have a good record on social legislation and talk of Britain as a 'sweatshop society' only shows that the rhetoric in some quarters has got out of hand. But the bottom line is that if we price ourselves out of world markets, people will be priced out of jobs. Before the socialists in Europe and in Britain try and cripple industry, they should remember that the best protection of all is a job.

Yours sincerely,

VIRGINIA TAYLOR

Ilford, Essex

The writer is Conservative Prospective European Parliament Candidate for London East.

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