The biggest danger could be that overseas workers are cheaper to keep therefore 'let's get rid of our own people first' which would really add to the economic problems.

I guess that's why Ms had to be pushed to do the sensible thing.

Quite.

A simple nofollow type flag would do it. (Maybe there already is one).

I'm still not convinced.

This reminds me of an HP seminar when they boasted that labour costs for their printers was less than 2% or 3% (don't remember exact figure).

I guess that you'll say this was because of low wages but it's still a very small part of the equation.

The sort of breaks I was thinking of are on capital investments and match funding etc.

Somehow I can't imagine that re-locating an entire factory right across Europe makes economic sense if lower wage bills are the only attraction.

The more likely reasons are significant tax breaks and other government inducements.

And no, this is nothing new, more a case of 'Back to the Future' (although at least DeLorean had the decency to go bust rather than look for bigger 'incentives' elsewhere).

Of Course, I see it now. Their accountants have advised them to diversify.