Jacqui Smith poked the nationalist hornets nest recently by announcing that the government were making it harder for foreign nationals to enter the UK for work.  This comes on the back of calls by Gordon Brown for British jobs to go to British workers last year in the Commons.

So it comes with some relief that the Chartered Management Institute have shown a high degree of common sense in declaring that an individuals skills are the primary concern when employing them, and not their nationality.

What I like to think of as the Arsene Wenger approach.  The Gooners manager has often been criticized by the media for not picking English players and his general argument is that he picks the best players regardless of nationality, with the intonation that the young English players at the club simply haven’t been up to the mark until recently when more English youngsters have made first team appearances.

In the global economic crisis we’re stumbling through it’s incredibly important that markets, both financial and labour, remain open and flexible.  The moment we start following protectionist policies is the moment we start entrenching this recession deeper and further than we can possibly imagine.

So well done to the CMI for sticking its neck out for what’s right and proper.