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		New Labour in Westminster, Old Labour in Brussels Lincolnshire Echo - November 14 2002 We can all remember when, as children, we hit a ball over the garden fence and had to go round to the neighbours and ask politely if we could come in and get it. Usually, there was no problem. But just sometimes an exasperated neighbour might make difficulties. I was reminded of this childhood embarrassment by an event that took place in Brussels a few weeks ago. The parliament is considering a Directive on temporary agency workers, which would give them all the same benefits as full-time employees. All very well, you might think. Except that it will knock the bottom out of the agency worker business. Temporary work is a great way back into the workforce for those who have been temporarily out of it -- women who have taken time out for family reasons, men who have been unemployed or sick. This ladder back into the employment market will be kicked away by the Directive. We in Britain have as many temporary workers as the rest of Europe put together -- but this Directive will make the British labour market less flexible and competitive, and it will cost jobs. This is not just my view, by the way. It is also the view of our Labour government. And the little boy asking for his ball back? British Employment Minister Alan Johnson came cap-in-hand to the European parliament's Unemployment Committee, to ask, please could we be let off? Mr. Johnson is not just a Labour Minister. He was also, until recently, Secretary-General of a major trade union. You couldn't ask for a man with more worker-friendly credentials. He explained to the Committee that our British market for agency workers was working well. It was OK with workers, employers, and agencies. It contributed to British competitiveness. Please, could the Committee not impose this damaging measure on us? They listened politely. They understood our problem. Perhaps they could give us a couple of years to "adjust" to the new system. But it was a done deal, and under the system of majority voting, there is just nothing we can do about it. So this is the state that our once-great, independent, democratic nation has been reduced to. Our Labour government thinks this is a bad and damaging measure that will cost jobs and make us all poorer. Didn't we elect them to Westminster to make this sort of decision? Yet they are forced to accept a different outcome imposed by faceless, unelected and unaccountable foreign bureaucrats. This is a classic example of the way in which Brussels undermines our democracy and our prosperity. I recently raised this issue in debate with East Midlands Labour MEP Phillip Whitehead. He argued that the measure would be helpful to stop the "gang-masters" who exploit groups of illegal workers -- but of course we already have rules against this practice. As so often in the EU, we should be implementing existing rules, not introducing sweeping new Directives, which will do widespread damage. And this is the final irony. Our Labour government is determined to fight on against this measure, and has asked MEPs to vote against it. We Conservative MEPs will do so -- not because Labour asked us, but because it's the right thing to do. But Phillip Whitehead and his Labour MEP colleagues are all set to vote FOR the Directive, because they have an ideological commitment to excessive employment regulation. It may be New Labour in Westminster, but it's Old Labour in Brussels. Even the Labour government has to rely on Conservative MEPs to stand up for British interests in Brussels, because Labour MEPs certainly won't.