To summarize, significant declines in employment – and
hence large-scale job destruction – characterized the first two decades of the
UK’s membership of the Common Market. Since then the number of people at work in
the UK has risen, but the employment gains have been disproportionately to the
benefit of people born outside Britain. When an allowance is made for the
deep-seated social trend towards higher female participation in the workforce,
the 40 years of EEC/EU membership has done nothing for employment in our
country. Indeed, the number of UK-born men in employment today is lower than in
1972, despite a substantial rise in the UK-born male population of working age.
The costly and burdensome acquis
communautaire, the body of EU law that has proliferated anti-employment
directives and regulations, must be largely responsible for this setback.
