Lazy Brits should be ashamed

THE FACT that we are now relying on bus drivers from Eastern Europe to shore up our public transport is a national disgrace. But I extend the warmest of welcomes to the new recruits.

The disgrace lies with the British workers who now refuse to take what they consider 'menial' jobs such as bus driving, forcing employers to look outside the country.

You can be sure the 400 drivers from Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic - another 600 will follow later in the year - taken on by the country's largest bus company, the First group, have a completely different attitude and I'm full of admiration for them.

They will come here and work damn hard for less money than lazy Brits demand. They will master the language, their wives will go out to work and save furiously for their children's educations.

You won't catch them squandering their earnings down the pub and I'll take a bet with you that in 20 years' time some of their children will be business leaders sustaining the British economy.

In fact, the men and women from Eastern Europe who are flocking here to work remind me of the Asian immigrants of the Sixties and Seventies, and the Jewish immigrants of the Forties. Both of those ethnic minority groups came to Britain with the express desire to work and provide for their families.

They toiled uncomplainingly around the clock, stressed the value of education to their children, and now some of those boys and girls are the entrepreneurs of today.

And as for the unemployed whingers who will no doubt soon be moaning that the Poles have taken their jobs - just as they did about the Asians in years gone by - I have no sympathy for them.

The truth is they don't want to work. There have always been people who had the brains to be lawyers and doctors and accountants, and those who didn't.

The difference is, where once the less clever people took great pride in manual work and trades, now they don't. They just can't be bothered and prefer to sponge off the state. The work ethic has been consigned to history.

It was very different when I started out.

I grew up on a council estate in Hackney, East London, and joined the Civil Service. I packed it in when I realised I could make a better go of things working for myself and I became a salesman flogging car aerials. With the money I made I went on to found Amstrad, my electronics company.

My parents - my father was a tailor and my mother worked hard to bring up four children - instilled in me the strongest of work ethics, and in everything I have done I have grafted hard because I knew no other way.

But in my day that wasn't unusual. We all worked hard. When I started out, the plumber or builder or labourer who couldn't find a job took whatever employment there was, whether that was driving a bus or sweeping the street. Today's unemployed don't want to do a job for £200 a week. They'll only get off their backsides for £500.

Instead, they'd rather scam the social security system and do a bit of moonlighting on the side to make up the money.

I have no problem with people who aspire to better things - a more fulfilling job, a bigger salary or better lifestyle.

But everyone has to start somewhere. I think the unemployed should set their sights a little lower and begin with an honest day's graft. Then, if they have the ability, they can work their way up or set up on their own as I did.

Sadly, most people are too complacent for that; there is no shame in being out of work, nor is there any hunger to be self-sufficient.

The reason for this is twofold. In the first instance our generous social security system fosters that attitude, and secondly, the workplace is being strangled by EU legislation governing worker and human rights.

As long as the Government continues to pay higher rates of unemployment benefit than many people can earn working five days a week, a certain section of society will always take advantage of it.

There is work out there, but people don't want to do it, so they sign on and when they are offered a job they don't want to take, they turn up, pay lipservice and ask their prospective employer to fill in a form saying they were unsuitable for the position. Then they just saunter back to the social security office and collect their next benefit cheque.

As far as I'm concerned, unless there is a medical reason why a person cannot work, he or she should be in employment. Anyone still claiming benefits after three months without a job should have their benefits stopped and be forced to work.

The figures speak for themselves: there are 1.4m people unemployed in this country, yet we have more than 1,000 bus drivers' jobs lying vacant. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

The cushion of the welfare state is also to blame for the shortage of skilled and manual labour in Britain. This means that people who once opted for these trades prefer now to rely on the state.

No wonder there are huge numbers of Eastern European plumbers, builders, carpenters and labourers over here filling the gap. I think it's time the Government addressed the problems that an over-generous welfare system has created.

The building trade is a classic example of an industry that could benefit from a modern apprenticeship system, which the Government could subsidise.

Instead of money being given away in benefits, unemployed youths should be told to report for work at their local building site and receive their benefits (as pay) that way.

But first we need to tackle the preoccupation with human rights which EU legislation has conferred on us. Modern workplaces are restricted by so much red tape they can't get on with the job in hand.

Most companies now employ lawyers who spend their whole time agonising over whether the temperature is correct and the environment pleasing enough for the employees.

Understandably, this sends out the wrong message about what is really important in business and fosters a culture of laziness.

Eastern European workers haven't had their minds poisoned in the way ours have by an obsession with human rights legislation.

Until we address these two problems, we will continue to breed a nation of workshy layabouts. And as long as we do, the only solution to our employment crisis will be to recruit from elsewhere.

Speaking as an employer, faced with a hungry, diligent Eastern European and a lazy, unmotivated Brit, I know which one I would rather employ.

? Sir Alan's fee for this article has been donated to charity.