When Poland joined the EU the first wave of immigrant workers arriving here tended to focus on the building trade. They soon became well known for going out for considerably less than their British equivalents but producing a much inferior standard of workmanship. Part of the problem was that the newly arrived, in an effort to secure employment, understandably claim to be skilled in all kinds of trades that they may have very limited knowledge of. Thus a worker who was perhaps a painter in Poland would blag his way into kitchen fitting, with the inevitable results. Well you get what you pay for and if some members of the chattering classes end up with new extensions parting company from the rest of the house what do I care? Now however we learn that a private clinic for Poles in West London is offering a half hour consultation with a Polish doctor for £70. That's about what you would expect to pay to have your boiler serviced by a qualified heating engineer and the job would probably take about the same amount of time. The Mail, Torygraph and the Economist all use the story to both slag off the NHS and once again grind on about that wonderful Polish work ethic. But the comments on the Economist piece are most revealing, and when it comes to the health service in Poland itself, so is this FT piece.
Just as an aside, the Poles have certainly put paid to the long held belief that the work ethic is a protestant malady.
No comments:
Post a Comment