For those who think that the management of P&O have gone far too far this time, just you wait.
The whole point of Brexit for many on the right was to make the UK less regulated with a much more flexible labour force. Which means making it far easier for companies to act like P&O just has.
When companies can already fire hundreds of dedicated workers on the spot and replace them with agency staff, while security throws the existing staff off the premises, you have to ask yourself: “How much more flexibility do you need?”.
The answer is none, companies can do what they want already, but that won’t stop the further erosion of what few protections there now are.
The irony is, of course, that the RMT like some other unions campaigned for Brexit. They, like the Labour leadership of the time, were obsessed with the idea that the EU was a capitalist plot to do them down.
They managed to squared that with the fact that their bed fellows, the right wing Brexiteers, wanted to abolish nearly all workers rights. That ended well.
Meanwhile ministers who complain about P&O are strangely quiet on legislating to stop such behaviour. But then they campaigned for these policies, introduced the laws that make it possible , voted for them and believe in even fewer worker rights.
Maybe they should support P&O’s management instead. They are, after all, only doing what this government has helped make possible.
Welcome to their world.
Economics, trade and Brexit, not necessarily in that order but the dog always comes first.