On Hancock, I really couldn't care less who he shags; that's his business.
But in my, and others', experience, having a clandestine extra-marital affair is extraordinarily time consuming and complex. I'm not sure how this fits with Hancock's repeated rhetoric of 'working round the clock', 'working 24/7', and so on to defeat the pandemic. How on earth could he find the time to sustain his marriage, have his affair, and defeat Covid without breaking lockdown rules? Baffling.
maybe he is "Mr Quickie"?
Maybe they'll turn it into a TV series.
Hancock's Half Hour.
Updated to The Sperm Donor.
"It may be just a dribble to you mate, but that’s ecstasy for some lucky lady!"
Starmer must be kicking himself. If he'd spent less time trying to put the past behind him by purging himself of everything Corbyn and instead turned his fire on Johnson he'd be soaring at the moment.
Maybe he still can but an image for what Labour look like now is difficult to make out. A rebrand is desperately needed. Whether it can happen under Starmer I don't know.
It would be easier with a change but who is there? Perhaps If David Milliband could be persuaded it would give them a look....Angela Raynor is just swapping deckchairs. There are 52% Remainers wandering around like zombies looking for a home.That's got to be the starting point.
Why bother with labour when the lib dems are the remain party
And with all due respect "Remain" is dead. It died on the alter of Covid and vaccine procurement. vote."
I'm afraid you're really out of touch Robert, which tends to happen when you don't live in a country. Not a criticism as I've been in the same situation myself many times.
It's true that 3 months ago there was considerable anti-EU feeling because of the vaccination procurement but that has changed now. We have all seen the EU catching up and, in some ways, overtaking the UK especially on their freedoms.
The current Remain polling is around 55% so that's nonsense to say that it has dropped to 30% or gone away. It's very much alive right now. A real sense that among the many problems hitting Boris Johnson, problems with Brexit are among them. The honeymoon is well and truly over.
Citation required.
There is a difference between “should we have Remained” with support ~50% and “should we rejoin” where the support is in the 30% range. The “Rejoin” camp are a minority and no evidence that’s changing.
Unless you have a Tardis the 50% number is irrelevant.
This is an absolutely crucial point.
Maybe 50% of people think leaving was an error.
But of these, perhaps only 60% would vote to rejoin in a referendum.
And of these, it is of overriding importance to maybe a third of these.
Quite a few Don't Knows too.
But I don't expect it to be in the manifesto of any major English party at the next GE, though EEA may well be LD policy.
Joining the EEA was of course, would be very similar to the policy which had a 2-1 majority in the 1975 referendum. Which, as I recall, was a generally truthful campaign. And enthusiastically supported by, among others, the Daily Mail.
My wife reports fresh food shortages when she returns from shopping trips. Nothing major, admittedly; niggles.
I suspect that if and when people can go on holiday to Europe again there will be similar niggles and inconveniences; the return of roaming charges is an example. Maybe longer passport queues.
I expect the biggest issue is likely to be the labour shortages. Road haulage being the big one at the moment, but it is a big slice of the NHS staffing issues too.
Yes the shortage isn't due to getting fresh across the border as we have simply taken back control by implementing very few checks on anything coming in - you can get randomly busted for stuff the customs officers want to eat, but otherwise it sails through for now.
The shortage is a crippling lack of drivers thanks to the combination of IR35 and Forrin go home
Alof of the foreigners going home are also IR35 related as previously there were able to pocket the money almost tax free - a lot of those drivers really don't want to be on HMRC books.
It should be added that the industry has asked for HGV driving to be added to the Labour shortage list and the Home Office has explicitly said No and given that everyone needs to be registered by next Wednesday bringing drivers back from Europe isn't a solution any more.
Is this a shortage of people wanting to be HGV drivers, or a shortage of trained ones? If the latter, there is an obvious solution for employers.
A shortage of trained drivers. Covid has largely stopped new driver training, which combined with an exodus of forrin drivers leaving and others unable / unwilling to drive under IR35 makes for a massive shortage.
"Just pay more" isn't the issue, a lot of people don't want to drive a truck which is why migrant labour was increasingly needed.
It's now a Mexican standoff. A hugely expensive overhaul of both wages and conditions are needed to attract people in so that the shortage doesn't get worse next year (this year is already fucked). But nobody can afford to pay as logistics is already crippled with high costs post BREXIT in an industry where the haulage bit was already the thin margins bit. The supermarkets are trying to recover from the extraordinary costs of Covid and have to cut costs for their new investors (Asda and soon Morrisons) and the manufacturing sector is similarly befuddled
Coats going up. Ability to swallow costs going down. Ultimately food price inflation is going to take off like a rocket.
Then we find a new price equilibrium. So what?
In the log run? Sure. Its just going to be very bumpy whilst we get there. Food being thrown away whilst supermarkets have shortages isn't a good outcome. That your government refuse to accept there is an issue doesn't help.
There isn't an issue.
ASDA not wanting to pay more is not the same thing as not being able to pay more.
If the government just opens the gates again and let's anyone in for minimum wage then yes the problem will go away. But considering YOUR PARTY is against homes for people coming in how is that a solution?
The issue will go away when a new equilibrium is reached under the law. If that causes disruption then businesses need to stop whinging that they want people to work for free negligible wages and start paying a market wage instead.
And we all need to be ready to pay the higher prices that will lead to.
Fine.
I don't want my products to be cheap solely because the people working on the chain to get them aren't earning a living wage.
We could have cheaper products by ensuring more stuff is made in sweatshops, is that what you want?
Eh? Brexit promised us cheaper food mate. Clearly that was more bollocks
Stay in the EU so we can exploit foreign workers
Quite catchy
There was some exploitation, as there still will be, but most of it was eastern Europeans doing jobs Brits didn't want.
Mostly skill and Labour shortages, after all any EU labour was paid the minimum wage, at least, so not exploited.
We shall shortly see how keen Britons are to work in logistics, hospitality, in health and social care and agriculture. They cannot work in them all simultaneously.
The minimum wage is supposed to be a minimum, not a maximum.
Yes, but it is at a level that prevents exploitation.
It seems though that the problem in so many sectors is lack of workers with the right skills rather than their pay. We shall see soon enough if the market plugs the gap. Personally, I will be quite happy for exploitative capitalist employers go bust because of Labour demands.
Indeed, the bar on EU doctors looks like giving me as much leverage on overtime rates as I want. Wasn't that the point of Brexit, to empower sturdy British yeomen like myself?
Well you guys are amongst the best paid and pensioned in Europe even though the BMA has convinced the Great British Public (they that can never be gulled) you are overworked and underpaid lol!
And by cutting out the foreign competition looking likely to be better still. Locum rates are going through the roof, if you can find one in the first place.
Can't blame you for being pleased. Perhaps you can tell the BMA you have had a "Brexit dividend" and tell them to stop moaning?
I am not in the BMA, who are a shite bunch of government lickspittles.
Harry Cole saying that none exec directors have been increasingly used by Gov ministers to get effectively extra SPADs without the normal recruitment issues.
Starmer must be kicking himself. If he'd spent less time trying to put the past behind him by purging himself of everything Corbyn and instead turned his fire on Johnson he'd be soaring at the moment.
Maybe he still can but an image for what Labour look like now is difficult to make out. A rebrand is desperately needed. Whether it can happen under Starmer I don't know.
It would be easier with a change but who is there? Perhaps If David Milliband could be persuaded it would give them a look....Angela Raynor is just swapping deckchairs. There are 52% Remainers wandering around like zombies looking for a home.That's got to be the starting point.
Why bother with labour when the lib dems are the remain party
And with all due respect "Remain" is dead. It died on the alter of Covid and vaccine procurement. vote."
I'm afraid you're really out of touch Robert, which tends to happen when you don't live in a country. Not a criticism as I've been in the same situation myself many times.
It's true that 3 months ago there was considerable anti-EU feeling because of the vaccination procurement but that has changed now. We have all seen the EU catching up and, in some ways, overtaking the UK especially on their freedoms.
The current Remain polling is around 55% so that's nonsense to say that it has dropped to 30% or gone away. It's very much alive right now. A real sense that among the many problems hitting Boris Johnson, problems with Brexit are among them. The honeymoon is well and truly over.
Citation required.
There is a difference between “should we have Remained” with support ~50% and “should we rejoin” where the support is in the 30% range. The “Rejoin” camp are a minority and no evidence that’s changing.
Unless you have a Tardis the 50% number is irrelevant.
This is an absolutely crucial point.
Maybe 50% of people think leaving was an error.
But of these, perhaps only 60% would vote to rejoin in a referendum.
And of these, it is of overriding importance to maybe a third of these.
Quite a few Don't Knows too.
But I don't expect it to be in the manifesto of any major English party at the next GE, though EEA may well be LD policy.
Joining the EEA was of course, would be very similar to the policy which had a 2-1 majority in the 1975 referendum. Which, as I recall, was a generally truthful campaign. And enthusiastically supported by, among others, the Daily Mail.
My wife reports fresh food shortages when she returns from shopping trips. Nothing major, admittedly; niggles.
I suspect that if and when people can go on holiday to Europe again there will be similar niggles and inconveniences; the return of roaming charges is an example. Maybe longer passport queues.
I expect the biggest issue is likely to be the labour shortages. Road haulage being the big one at the moment, but it is a big slice of the NHS staffing issues too.
Yes the shortage isn't due to getting fresh across the border as we have simply taken back control by implementing very few checks on anything coming in - you can get randomly busted for stuff the customs officers want to eat, but otherwise it sails through for now.
The shortage is a crippling lack of drivers thanks to the combination of IR35 and Forrin go home
Alof of the foreigners going home are also IR35 related as previously there were able to pocket the money almost tax free - a lot of those drivers really don't want to be on HMRC books.
It should be added that the industry has asked for HGV driving to be added to the Labour shortage list and the Home Office has explicitly said No and given that everyone needs to be registered by next Wednesday bringing drivers back from Europe isn't a solution any more.
Is this a shortage of people wanting to be HGV drivers, or a shortage of trained ones? If the latter, there is an obvious solution for employers.
A shortage of trained drivers. Covid has largely stopped new driver training, which combined with an exodus of forrin drivers leaving and others unable / unwilling to drive under IR35 makes for a massive shortage.
"Just pay more" isn't the issue, a lot of people don't want to drive a truck which is why migrant labour was increasingly needed.
It's now a Mexican standoff. A hugely expensive overhaul of both wages and conditions are needed to attract people in so that the shortage doesn't get worse next year (this year is already fucked). But nobody can afford to pay as logistics is already crippled with high costs post BREXIT in an industry where the haulage bit was already the thin margins bit. The supermarkets are trying to recover from the extraordinary costs of Covid and have to cut costs for their new investors (Asda and soon Morrisons) and the manufacturing sector is similarly befuddled
Coats going up. Ability to swallow costs going down. Ultimately food price inflation is going to take off like a rocket.
Then we find a new price equilibrium. So what?
In the log run? Sure. Its just going to be very bumpy whilst we get there. Food being thrown away whilst supermarkets have shortages isn't a good outcome. That your government refuse to accept there is an issue doesn't help.
There isn't an issue.
ASDA not wanting to pay more is not the same thing as not being able to pay more.
If the government just opens the gates again and let's anyone in for minimum wage then yes the problem will go away. But considering YOUR PARTY is against homes for people coming in how is that a solution?
The issue will go away when a new equilibrium is reached under the law. If that causes disruption then businesses need to stop whinging that they want people to work for free negligible wages and start paying a market wage instead.
And we all need to be ready to pay the higher prices that will lead to.
Fine.
I don't want my products to be cheap solely because the people working on the chain to get them aren't earning a living wage.
We could have cheaper products by ensuring more stuff is made in sweatshops, is that what you want?
Eh? Brexit promised us cheaper food mate. Clearly that was more bollocks
Stay in the EU so we can exploit foreign workers
Quite catchy
There was some exploitation, as there still will be, but most of it was eastern Europeans doing jobs Brits didn't want.
Mostly skill and Labour shortages, after all any EU labour was paid the minimum wage, at least, so not exploited.
We shall shortly see how keen Britons are to work in logistics, hospitality, in health and social care and agriculture. They cannot work in them all simultaneously.
The minimum wage is supposed to be a minimum, not a maximum.
Yes, but it is at a level that prevents exploitation.
It seems though that the problem in so many sectors is lack of workers with the right skills rather than their pay. We shall see soon enough if the market plugs the gap. Personally, I will be quite happy for exploitative capitalist employers go bust because of Labour demands.
Indeed, the bar on EU doctors looks like giving me as much leverage on overtime rates as I want. Wasn't that the point of Brexit, to empower sturdy British yeomen like myself?
Well you guys are amongst the best paid and pensioned in Europe even though the BMA has convinced the Great British Public (they that can never be gulled) you are overworked and underpaid lol!
And by cutting out the foreign competition looking likely to be better still. Locum rates are going through the roof, if you can find one in the first place.
Can't blame you for being pleased. Perhaps you can tell the BMA you have had a "Brexit dividend" and tell them to stop moaning?
I am not in the BMA, who are a shite bunch of government lickspittles.
That last remark is quite inaccurate.
The BMA are actually a shite bunch of self serving lickspittles, who sell their arses to the government on occasion.
Starmer must be kicking himself. If he'd spent less time trying to put the past behind him by purging himself of everything Corbyn and instead turned his fire on Johnson he'd be soaring at the moment.
Maybe he still can but an image for what Labour look like now is difficult to make out. A rebrand is desperately needed. Whether it can happen under Starmer I don't know.
It would be easier with a change but who is there? Perhaps If David Milliband could be persuaded it would give them a look....Angela Raynor is just swapping deckchairs. There are 52% Remainers wandering around like zombies looking for a home.That's got to be the starting point.
Why bother with labour when the lib dems are the remain party
And with all due respect "Remain" is dead. It died on the alter of Covid and vaccine procurement. vote."
I'm afraid you're really out of touch Robert, which tends to happen when you don't live in a country. Not a criticism as I've been in the same situation myself many times.
It's true that 3 months ago there was considerable anti-EU feeling because of the vaccination procurement but that has changed now. We have all seen the EU catching up and, in some ways, overtaking the UK especially on their freedoms.
The current Remain polling is around 55% so that's nonsense to say that it has dropped to 30% or gone away. It's very much alive right now. A real sense that among the many problems hitting Boris Johnson, problems with Brexit are among them. The honeymoon is well and truly over.
Citation required.
There is a difference between “should we have Remained” with support ~50% and “should we rejoin” where the support is in the 30% range. The “Rejoin” camp are a minority and no evidence that’s changing.
Unless you have a Tardis the 50% number is irrelevant.
This is an absolutely crucial point.
Maybe 50% of people think leaving was an error.
But of these, perhaps only 60% would vote to rejoin in a referendum.
And of these, it is of overriding importance to maybe a third of these.
Quite a few Don't Knows too.
But I don't expect it to be in the manifesto of any major English party at the next GE, though EEA may well be LD policy.
Joining the EEA was of course, would be very similar to the policy which had a 2-1 majority in the 1975 referendum. Which, as I recall, was a generally truthful campaign. And enthusiastically supported by, among others, the Daily Mail.
My wife reports fresh food shortages when she returns from shopping trips. Nothing major, admittedly; niggles.
I suspect that if and when people can go on holiday to Europe again there will be similar niggles and inconveniences; the return of roaming charges is an example. Maybe longer passport queues.
I expect the biggest issue is likely to be the labour shortages. Road haulage being the big one at the moment, but it is a big slice of the NHS staffing issues too.
Yes the shortage isn't due to getting fresh across the border as we have simply taken back control by implementing very few checks on anything coming in - you can get randomly busted for stuff the customs officers want to eat, but otherwise it sails through for now.
The shortage is a crippling lack of drivers thanks to the combination of IR35 and Forrin go home
Alof of the foreigners going home are also IR35 related as previously there were able to pocket the money almost tax free - a lot of those drivers really don't want to be on HMRC books.
It should be added that the industry has asked for HGV driving to be added to the Labour shortage list and the Home Office has explicitly said No and given that everyone needs to be registered by next Wednesday bringing drivers back from Europe isn't a solution any more.
Is this a shortage of people wanting to be HGV drivers, or a shortage of trained ones? If the latter, there is an obvious solution for employers.
A shortage of trained drivers. Covid has largely stopped new driver training, which combined with an exodus of forrin drivers leaving and others unable / unwilling to drive under IR35 makes for a massive shortage.
"Just pay more" isn't the issue, a lot of people don't want to drive a truck which is why migrant labour was increasingly needed.
It's now a Mexican standoff. A hugely expensive overhaul of both wages and conditions are needed to attract people in so that the shortage doesn't get worse next year (this year is already fucked). But nobody can afford to pay as logistics is already crippled with high costs post BREXIT in an industry where the haulage bit was already the thin margins bit. The supermarkets are trying to recover from the extraordinary costs of Covid and have to cut costs for their new investors (Asda and soon Morrisons) and the manufacturing sector is similarly befuddled
Coats going up. Ability to swallow costs going down. Ultimately food price inflation is going to take off like a rocket.
Then we find a new price equilibrium. So what?
In the log run? Sure. Its just going to be very bumpy whilst we get there. Food being thrown away whilst supermarkets have shortages isn't a good outcome. That your government refuse to accept there is an issue doesn't help.
There isn't an issue.
ASDA not wanting to pay more is not the same thing as not being able to pay more.
If the government just opens the gates again and let's anyone in for minimum wage then yes the problem will go away. But considering YOUR PARTY is against homes for people coming in how is that a solution?
The issue will go away when a new equilibrium is reached under the law. If that causes disruption then businesses need to stop whinging that they want people to work for free negligible wages and start paying a market wage instead.
And we all need to be ready to pay the higher prices that will lead to.
Fine.
I don't want my products to be cheap solely because the people working on the chain to get them aren't earning a living wage.
We could have cheaper products by ensuring more stuff is made in sweatshops, is that what you want?
Eh? Brexit promised us cheaper food mate. Clearly that was more bollocks
Stay in the EU so we can exploit foreign workers
Quite catchy
There was some exploitation, as there still will be, but most of it was eastern Europeans doing jobs Brits didn't want.
Mostly skill and Labour shortages, after all any EU labour was paid the minimum wage, at least, so not exploited.
We shall shortly see how keen Britons are to work in logistics, hospitality, in health and social care and agriculture. They cannot work in them all simultaneously.
Two pointers to what will happen.
1) The building industry is finally investing in the lower level automation that, for example, the French use. If you look at a French domestic building site, it doesn't take much before they put up a small crane to move stuff around. UK sites just use a chain of Polish blokes. Mini diggers are finally taking over alot of manual digging... etc etc.
Interesting that you cite French building sites as better productivity. It's almost as if free movement of Labour within the EU doesn't account for the lamentable stagnation of productivity here. If free movement of Labour wasn't a drag on French productivity, why was it so here?
Unionisation? Just a guess but I seem to recall the French labour market is rather more restricted.
So plenty of things that could have been done within the EU to improve productivity and prevent labour exploitation, if the government had been arsed.
How do you even get access to cctv footage like that? In the hours and hours of footage you would have specifically to go looking for something for something like that. Not something to stumble upon.
I’m sure security keeps a note of anything interesting as they watch it live
That’s a serious allegation. Government security monitoring ministers.
I was meaning the security guy in the room with all the cameras on screen.
(Does that actually happen or is it just in movies?)
I was angry when Cummings broken the rules to have a holiday in Barnard Castle and I'm angry now.
Be interesting to see what the snap polling shows on the public view of this.
I'm not a fan of Question Time these days, but I watched the first question last night, which was about letting in UEFA big-wigs, sponsors and so on the watch the UEFA Cup Final. All, I think, except one of the audience, and he was somewhat half-hearted, thought it was wrong, and only Robert Buckland ..... well, he had to to, didn't he ...... of the panel defended it. He wasn't all that keen either.
Similar in the pub the other afternoon...... except of course that RB wasn't there!
I am beginning to feel that 'peak Boris' has passed, and things are going downhill quite rapidly. Might give a new dimension to B&S, too.
Interestingly, on my shopping trip out yesterday, I noticed for the first that mask wearing was starting to slip. Several people (men mainly) had them on but pushed down under their chins so it was pointless. To date my patch has been pretty strict on the rules from what I've seen. Things are starting to slip.
I wonder whether the rows over the elite being exempted all over the place are part of this?
Isn’t more that people are starting to click that ‘positive tests’ aren’t translating into deaths, and that the vaccines - guess what?! - work?
Los Angeles County says nearly all coronavirus cases over the past 6 months were in those who weren't vaccinated:
So basically you are saying that companies were using immigration from Europe to suppress wages?
There absolutely was competition from Europe, but that was more EU registered trucks filling up with cheap French diesel, doing a load of jobs here then going back again. Trucking like so many other industries only really opened the doors to migrant labour when there was a shortage of locals.
Some of that shortage will be driven by wages but also by conditions. The wages piece really becomes a problem now thanks to the IR35 changes where freelance drivers are suddenly treated as employees - the big spike in costs can't / won't be met anywhere in the supply chain so people have quit.
There is no shortage of locals, there's a shortage of locals willing to work on the terms and conditions that some employers want to pay. The solution to that is to let the market find a new equilibrium of terms and conditions.
If elements of the supply chain can't compete with higher costs then they'll go out of business and cease to require transport. So the problem goes away. Or they actually can absorb the costs, so they do, so the problem goes away.
Either way your "disruption" is actually the chaos of the market working as it is supposed to do. Not a problem.
Placing artificial barriers on the market's proper functioning - by, for example, limiting the supply of available labour - ultimately harms the consumer. That's basically OK if it means there are fewer coffee shops, restaurants and hotels to choose from, even if its reduces the numbers who can afford to enjoy them, but it's not fine if it prevents food getting into shops or makes it more expensive to buy. That's why, in the end, the government will quietly ensure that it doesn't happen, so interfering with the market even more.
The problem is that because of the use of a conveyor-belt* of low end workers from low cost countries, you can suppress wages below a sustainable level**.
Hence MHO (may adults living in a property) etc etc...
*They come in on the lowest end jobs, either move up and replaced, leave or get stuck in the shitty conditions. **Sustainable in the sense of actually living a decent life.
That may well be an issue. But let's not pretend that limiting labour supply is not going to have an impact on consumer choice and the prices that consumers pay. As I say, in some areas that will not matter. When it comes to basics, though, it will.
On this trip I spent a few days operating out of Yatton in Zummerzet. Cheddar is not far away so its got the whole tourist thing on the doorstep. Roads are horribly cramped for the traffic in them and the villages even more so.
Had a quick look at property prices - £300k just about gets you into something tiny. For anything more substantial its half a million. How the hell do people afford that?
On Hancock, I really couldn't care less who he shags; that's his business.
But in my, and others', experience, having a clandestine extra-marital affair is extraordinarily time consuming and complex. I'm not sure how this fits with Hancock's repeated rhetoric of 'working round the clock', 'working 24/7', and so on to defeat the pandemic. How on earth could he find the time to sustain his marriage, have his affair, and defeat Covid without breaking lockdown rules? Baffling.
In normal times it shouldn’t matter. But he has been warning people off hugging close family, or interacting with work colleagues without wearing a mask etc, and here he is snogging/shagging a woman who lives in a different house, with her family etc. It’s about 100 times worse than Cummings trip to Durham
Good point. Cummings broke the rules but was at least with his own nuclear family.
On Hancock, I really couldn't care less who he shags; that's his business.
But in my, and others', experience, having a clandestine extra-marital affair is extraordinarily time consuming and complex. I'm not sure how this fits with Hancock's repeated rhetoric of 'working round the clock', 'working 24/7', and so on to defeat the pandemic. How on earth could he find the time to sustain his marriage, have his affair, and defeat Covid without breaking lockdown rules? Baffling.
On this trip I spent a few days operating out of Yatton in Zummerzet. Cheddar is not far away so its got the whole tourist thing on the doorstep. Roads are horribly cramped for the traffic in them and the villages even more so.
Had a quick look at property prices - £300k just about gets you into something tiny. For anything more substantial its half a million. How the hell do people afford that?
So basically you are saying that companies were using immigration from Europe to suppress wages?
There absolutely was competition from Europe, but that was more EU registered trucks filling up with cheap French diesel, doing a load of jobs here then going back again. Trucking like so many other industries only really opened the doors to migrant labour when there was a shortage of locals.
Some of that shortage will be driven by wages but also by conditions. The wages piece really becomes a problem now thanks to the IR35 changes where freelance drivers are suddenly treated as employees - the big spike in costs can't / won't be met anywhere in the supply chain so people have quit.
There is no shortage of locals, there's a shortage of locals willing to work on the terms and conditions that some employers want to pay. The solution to that is to let the market find a new equilibrium of terms and conditions.
If elements of the supply chain can't compete with higher costs then they'll go out of business and cease to require transport. So the problem goes away. Or they actually can absorb the costs, so they do, so the problem goes away.
Either way your "disruption" is actually the chaos of the market working as it is supposed to do. Not a problem.
Placing artificial barriers on the market's proper functioning - by, for example, limiting the supply of available labour - ultimately harms the consumer. That's basically OK if it means there are fewer coffee shops, restaurants and hotels to choose from, even if its reduces the numbers who can afford to enjoy them, but it's not fine if it prevents food getting into shops or makes it more expensive to buy. That's why, in the end, the government will quietly ensure that it doesn't happen, so interfering with the market even more.
The problem is that because of the use of a conveyor-belt* of low end workers from low cost countries, you can suppress wages below a sustainable level**.
Hence MHO (may adults living in a property) etc etc...
*They come in on the lowest end jobs, either move up and replaced, leave or get stuck in the shitty conditions. **Sustainable in the sense of actually living a decent life.
That may well be an issue. But let's not pretend that limiting labour supply is not going to have an impact on consumer choice and the prices that consumers pay. As I say, in some areas that will not matter. When it comes to basics, though, it will.
Is anyone pretending otherwise.
Seems to be working as intended so far and the only ones complaining are those content to use unlimited below market labour are now having to face the consequences of the decisions freely made to end that.
On this trip I spent a few days operating out of Yatton in Zummerzet. Cheddar is not far away so its got the whole tourist thing on the doorstep. Roads are horribly cramped for the traffic in them and the villages even more so.
Had a quick look at property prices - £300k just about gets you into something tiny. For anything more substantial its half a million. How the hell do people afford that?
The people buying are selling in London.
And the people buying in London are being given big mortgages.
Starmer must be kicking himself. If he'd spent less time trying to put the past behind him by purging himself of everything Corbyn and instead turned his fire on Johnson he'd be soaring at the moment.
Maybe he still can but an image for what Labour look like now is difficult to make out. A rebrand is desperately needed. Whether it can happen under Starmer I don't know.
It would be easier with a change but who is there? Perhaps If David Milliband could be persuaded it would give them a look....Angela Raynor is just swapping deckchairs. There are 52% Remainers wandering around like zombies looking for a home.That's got to be the starting point.
Why bother with labour when the lib dems are the remain party
And with all due respect "Remain" is dead. It died on the alter of Covid and vaccine procurement. vote."
I'm afraid you're really out of touch Robert, which tends to happen when you don't live in a country. Not a criticism as I've been in the same situation myself many times.
It's true that 3 months ago there was considerable anti-EU feeling because of the vaccination procurement but that has changed now. We have all seen the EU catching up and, in some ways, overtaking the UK especially on their freedoms.
The current Remain polling is around 55% so that's nonsense to say that it has dropped to 30% or gone away. It's very much alive right now. A real sense that among the many problems hitting Boris Johnson, problems with Brexit are among them. The honeymoon is well and truly over.
Citation required.
There is a difference between “should we have Remained” with support ~50% and “should we rejoin” where the support is in the 30% range. The “Rejoin” camp are a minority and no evidence that’s changing.
Unless you have a Tardis the 50% number is irrelevant.
This is an absolutely crucial point.
Maybe 50% of people think leaving was an error.
But of these, perhaps only 60% would vote to rejoin in a referendum.
And of these, it is of overriding importance to maybe a third of these.
Quite a few Don't Knows too.
But I don't expect it to be in the manifesto of any major English party at the next GE, though EEA may well be LD policy.
Joining the EEA was of course, would be very similar to the policy which had a 2-1 majority in the 1975 referendum. Which, as I recall, was a generally truthful campaign. And enthusiastically supported by, among others, the Daily Mail.
My wife reports fresh food shortages when she returns from shopping trips. Nothing major, admittedly; niggles.
I suspect that if and when people can go on holiday to Europe again there will be similar niggles and inconveniences; the return of roaming charges is an example. Maybe longer passport queues.
I expect the biggest issue is likely to be the labour shortages. Road haulage being the big one at the moment, but it is a big slice of the NHS staffing issues too.
Yes the shortage isn't due to getting fresh across the border as we have simply taken back control by implementing very few checks on anything coming in - you can get randomly busted for stuff the customs officers want to eat, but otherwise it sails through for now.
The shortage is a crippling lack of drivers thanks to the combination of IR35 and Forrin go home
Alof of the foreigners going home are also IR35 related as previously there were able to pocket the money almost tax free - a lot of those drivers really don't want to be on HMRC books.
It should be added that the industry has asked for HGV driving to be added to the Labour shortage list and the Home Office has explicitly said No and given that everyone needs to be registered by next Wednesday bringing drivers back from Europe isn't a solution any more.
Is this a shortage of people wanting to be HGV drivers, or a shortage of trained ones? If the latter, there is an obvious solution for employers.
A shortage of trained drivers. Covid has largely stopped new driver training, which combined with an exodus of forrin drivers leaving and others unable / unwilling to drive under IR35 makes for a massive shortage.
"Just pay more" isn't the issue, a lot of people don't want to drive a truck which is why migrant labour was increasingly needed.
It's now a Mexican standoff. A hugely expensive overhaul of both wages and conditions are needed to attract people in so that the shortage doesn't get worse next year (this year is already fucked). But nobody can afford to pay as logistics is already crippled with high costs post BREXIT in an industry where the haulage bit was already the thin margins bit. The supermarkets are trying to recover from the extraordinary costs of Covid and have to cut costs for their new investors (Asda and soon Morrisons) and the manufacturing sector is similarly befuddled
Coats going up. Ability to swallow costs going down. Ultimately food price inflation is going to take off like a rocket.
Then we find a new price equilibrium. So what?
In the log run? Sure. Its just going to be very bumpy whilst we get there. Food being thrown away whilst supermarkets have shortages isn't a good outcome. That your government refuse to accept there is an issue doesn't help.
There isn't an issue.
ASDA not wanting to pay more is not the same thing as not being able to pay more.
If the government just opens the gates again and let's anyone in for minimum wage then yes the problem will go away. But considering YOUR PARTY is against homes for people coming in how is that a solution?
The issue will go away when a new equilibrium is reached under the law. If that causes disruption then businesses need to stop whinging that they want people to work for free negligible wages and start paying a market wage instead.
And we all need to be ready to pay the higher prices that will lead to.
Fine.
I don't want my products to be cheap solely because the people working on the chain to get them aren't earning a living wage.
We could have cheaper products by ensuring more stuff is made in sweatshops, is that what you want?
Eh? Brexit promised us cheaper food mate. Clearly that was more bollocks
Stay in the EU so we can exploit foreign workers
Quite catchy
There was some exploitation, as there still will be, but most of it was eastern Europeans doing jobs Brits didn't want.
Mostly skill and Labour shortages, after all any EU labour was paid the minimum wage, at least, so not exploited.
We shall shortly see how keen Britons are to work in logistics, hospitality, in health and social care and agriculture. They cannot work in them all simultaneously.
The minimum wage is supposed to be a minimum, not a maximum.
Yes, but it is at a level that prevents exploitation.
It seems though that the problem in so many sectors is lack of workers with the right skills rather than their pay. We shall see soon enough if the market plugs the gap. Personally, I will be quite happy for exploitative capitalist employers go bust because of Labour demands.
Indeed, the bar on EU doctors looks like giving me as much leverage on overtime rates as I want. Wasn't that the point of Brexit, to empower sturdy British yeomen like myself?
Should skilled workers be on minimum wage? Would you be happy to earn minimum wage yourself?
On Hancock, I really couldn't care less who he shags; that's his business.
But in my, and others', experience, having a clandestine extra-marital affair is extraordinarily time consuming and complex. I'm not sure how this fits with Hancock's repeated rhetoric of 'working round the clock', 'working 24/7', and so on to defeat the pandemic. How on earth could he find the time to sustain his marriage, have his affair, and defeat Covid without breaking lockdown rules? Baffling.
“On Thursday evening after a successful day of saving lives and protecting the NHS, I walked in to my office to see Gina choking on a throat swab from our world beating test and trace kits. I immediately tried to dislodge it with my tongue to save her life…”
Starmer must be kicking himself. If he'd spent less time trying to put the past behind him by purging himself of everything Corbyn and instead turned his fire on Johnson he'd be soaring at the moment.
Maybe he still can but an image for what Labour look like now is difficult to make out. A rebrand is desperately needed. Whether it can happen under Starmer I don't know.
It would be easier with a change but who is there? Perhaps If David Milliband could be persuaded it would give them a look....Angela Raynor is just swapping deckchairs. There are 52% Remainers wandering around like zombies looking for a home.That's got to be the starting point.
Why bother with labour when the lib dems are the remain party
And with all due respect "Remain" is dead. It died on the alter of Covid and vaccine procurement. vote."
I'm afraid you're really out of touch Robert, which tends to happen when you don't live in a country. Not a criticism as I've been in the same situation myself many times.
It's true that 3 months ago there was considerable anti-EU feeling because of the vaccination procurement but that has changed now. We have all seen the EU catching up and, in some ways, overtaking the UK especially on their freedoms.
The current Remain polling is around 55% so that's nonsense to say that it has dropped to 30% or gone away. It's very much alive right now. A real sense that among the many problems hitting Boris Johnson, problems with Brexit are among them. The honeymoon is well and truly over.
Citation required.
There is a difference between “should we have Remained” with support ~50% and “should we rejoin” where the support is in the 30% range. The “Rejoin” camp are a minority and no evidence that’s changing.
Unless you have a Tardis the 50% number is irrelevant.
This is an absolutely crucial point.
Maybe 50% of people think leaving was an error.
But of these, perhaps only 60% would vote to rejoin in a referendum.
And of these, it is of overriding importance to maybe a third of these.
Quite a few Don't Knows too.
But I don't expect it to be in the manifesto of any major English party at the next GE, though EEA may well be LD policy.
Joining the EEA was of course, would be very similar to the policy which had a 2-1 majority in the 1975 referendum. Which, as I recall, was a generally truthful campaign. And enthusiastically supported by, among others, the Daily Mail.
My wife reports fresh food shortages when she returns from shopping trips. Nothing major, admittedly; niggles.
I suspect that if and when people can go on holiday to Europe again there will be similar niggles and inconveniences; the return of roaming charges is an example. Maybe longer passport queues.
I expect the biggest issue is likely to be the labour shortages. Road haulage being the big one at the moment, but it is a big slice of the NHS staffing issues too.
Yes the shortage isn't due to getting fresh across the border as we have simply taken back control by implementing very few checks on anything coming in - you can get randomly busted for stuff the customs officers want to eat, but otherwise it sails through for now.
The shortage is a crippling lack of drivers thanks to the combination of IR35 and Forrin go home
Alof of the foreigners going home are also IR35 related as previously there were able to pocket the money almost tax free - a lot of those drivers really don't want to be on HMRC books.
It should be added that the industry has asked for HGV driving to be added to the Labour shortage list and the Home Office has explicitly said No and given that everyone needs to be registered by next Wednesday bringing drivers back from Europe isn't a solution any more.
Is this a shortage of people wanting to be HGV drivers, or a shortage of trained ones? If the latter, there is an obvious solution for employers.
A shortage of trained drivers. Covid has largely stopped new driver training, which combined with an exodus of forrin drivers leaving and others unable / unwilling to drive under IR35 makes for a massive shortage.
"Just pay more" isn't the issue, a lot of people don't want to drive a truck which is why migrant labour was increasingly needed.
It's now a Mexican standoff. A hugely expensive overhaul of both wages and conditions are needed to attract people in so that the shortage doesn't get worse next year (this year is already fucked). But nobody can afford to pay as logistics is already crippled with high costs post BREXIT in an industry where the haulage bit was already the thin margins bit. The supermarkets are trying to recover from the extraordinary costs of Covid and have to cut costs for their new investors (Asda and soon Morrisons) and the manufacturing sector is similarly befuddled
Coats going up. Ability to swallow costs going down. Ultimately food price inflation is going to take off like a rocket.
Then we find a new price equilibrium. So what?
In the log run? Sure. Its just going to be very bumpy whilst we get there. Food being thrown away whilst supermarkets have shortages isn't a good outcome. That your government refuse to accept there is an issue doesn't help.
There isn't an issue.
ASDA not wanting to pay more is not the same thing as not being able to pay more.
If the government just opens the gates again and let's anyone in for minimum wage then yes the problem will go away. But considering YOUR PARTY is against homes for people coming in how is that a solution?
The issue will go away when a new equilibrium is reached under the law. If that causes disruption then businesses need to stop whinging that they want people to work for free negligible wages and start paying a market wage instead.
And we all need to be ready to pay the higher prices that will lead to.
Fine.
I don't want my products to be cheap solely because the people working on the chain to get them aren't earning a living wage.
We could have cheaper products by ensuring more stuff is made in sweatshops, is that what you want?
Eh? Brexit promised us cheaper food mate. Clearly that was more bollocks
Stay in the EU so we can exploit foreign workers
Quite catchy
There was some exploitation, as there still will be, but most of it was eastern Europeans doing jobs Brits didn't want.
Mostly skill and Labour shortages, after all any EU labour was paid the minimum wage, at least, so not exploited.
We shall shortly see how keen Britons are to work in logistics, hospitality, in health and social care and agriculture. They cannot work in them all simultaneously.
Two pointers to what will happen.
1) The building industry is finally investing in the lower level automation that, for example, the French use. If you look at a French domestic building site, it doesn't take much before they put up a small crane to move stuff around. UK sites just use a chain of Polish blokes. Mini diggers are finally taking over alot of manual digging... etc etc.
Interesting that you cite French building sites as better productivity. It's almost as if free movement of Labour within the EU doesn't account for the lamentable stagnation of productivity here. If free movement of Labour wasn't a drag on French productivity, why was it so here?
The UK has a much freer labour market than France.
No merde Sherlock !!
( I was going to say Hercule, but then I knew someone would point out he was Belgian)
I see you haven't encountered the methodologies of the French labour market.
- There are considerable incentives to invest in equipment. - hiring people in general is problematic and risky. Very easy to end up with employees you can't get rid of. - Outside Paris, using too much* immigrant labour on your building site will result in violence and destruction of your property**
*Yes, I know **Remember the burning sheep lorries. Like that....
So basically you are saying that companies were using immigration from Europe to suppress wages?
There absolutely was competition from Europe, but that was more EU registered trucks filling up with cheap French diesel, doing a load of jobs here then going back again. Trucking like so many other industries only really opened the doors to migrant labour when there was a shortage of locals.
Some of that shortage will be driven by wages but also by conditions. The wages piece really becomes a problem now thanks to the IR35 changes where freelance drivers are suddenly treated as employees - the big spike in costs can't / won't be met anywhere in the supply chain so people have quit.
There is no shortage of locals, there's a shortage of locals willing to work on the terms and conditions that some employers want to pay. The solution to that is to let the market find a new equilibrium of terms and conditions.
If elements of the supply chain can't compete with higher costs then they'll go out of business and cease to require transport. So the problem goes away. Or they actually can absorb the costs, so they do, so the problem goes away.
Either way your "disruption" is actually the chaos of the market working as it is supposed to do. Not a problem.
Placing artificial barriers on the market's proper functioning - by, for example, limiting the supply of available labour - ultimately harms the consumer. That's basically OK if it means there are fewer coffee shops, restaurants and hotels to choose from, even if its reduces the numbers who can afford to enjoy them, but it's not fine if it prevents food getting into shops or makes it more expensive to buy. That's why, in the end, the government will quietly ensure that it doesn't happen, so interfering with the market even more.
It won't happen. People will pay what they need to pay for food, so the shops will pay what they need to pay to stock it. The rest is fluff.
Just because businesses would prefer to pay less doesn't mean they won't pay more if they realise there is no alternative.
My local Tesco's now has a Costa Coffee machine. Indeed they seem to be everywhere nowadays. Not as much need for actual coffee shops or baristas making coffees for minimum wage if a machine can do it instead.
My 19 year old daughter has had her first dose now. I do feel that this is nearly over for us now.
My 20 year old son had his yesterday, pleased to say.
Awesome to hear of the youngsters getting vaccines. It’s genuinely nearly over.
Not sure whether Grandson 2, aged 18 has actually had his first dose, but he's booked up for it. Working in a restaurant for the summer, near his home and seems very happy.
I was angry when Cummings broken the rules to have a holiday in Barnard Castle and I'm angry now.
Be interesting to see what the snap polling shows on the public view of this.
I'm not a fan of Question Time these days, but I watched the first question last night, which was about letting in UEFA big-wigs, sponsors and so on the watch the UEFA Cup Final. All, I think, except one of the audience, and he was somewhat half-hearted, thought it was wrong, and only Robert Buckland ..... well, he had to to, didn't he ...... of the panel defended it. He wasn't all that keen either.
Similar in the pub the other afternoon...... except of course that RB wasn't there!
I am beginning to feel that 'peak Boris' has passed, and things are going downhill quite rapidly. Might give a new dimension to B&S, too.
Interestingly, on my shopping trip out yesterday, I noticed for the first that mask wearing was starting to slip. Several people (men mainly) had them on but pushed down under their chins so it was pointless. To date my patch has been pretty strict on the rules from what I've seen. Things are starting to slip.
I wonder whether the rows over the elite being exempted all over the place are part of this?
Isn’t more that people are starting to click that ‘positive tests’ aren’t translating into deaths, and that the vaccines - guess what?! - work?
Los Angeles County says nearly all coronavirus cases over the past 6 months were in those who weren't vaccinated:
Those figers aren't quite as good as they first look, 6 months ago there where lots of cases/deaths/hepatisations, and very little vaccination, not its the other way round, if you brock that 6 month block in to 6 one month blocks, the numbers would still show vaccines to be very efficient but not quite as good.
So basically you are saying that companies were using immigration from Europe to suppress wages?
There absolutely was competition from Europe, but that was more EU registered trucks filling up with cheap French diesel, doing a load of jobs here then going back again. Trucking like so many other industries only really opened the doors to migrant labour when there was a shortage of locals.
Some of that shortage will be driven by wages but also by conditions. The wages piece really becomes a problem now thanks to the IR35 changes where freelance drivers are suddenly treated as employees - the big spike in costs can't / won't be met anywhere in the supply chain so people have quit.
There is no shortage of locals, there's a shortage of locals willing to work on the terms and conditions that some employers want to pay. The solution to that is to let the market find a new equilibrium of terms and conditions.
If elements of the supply chain can't compete with higher costs then they'll go out of business and cease to require transport. So the problem goes away. Or they actually can absorb the costs, so they do, so the problem goes away.
Either way your "disruption" is actually the chaos of the market working as it is supposed to do. Not a problem.
Placing artificial barriers on the market's proper functioning - by, for example, limiting the supply of available labour - ultimately harms the consumer. That's basically OK if it means there are fewer coffee shops, restaurants and hotels to choose from, even if its reduces the numbers who can afford to enjoy them, but it's not fine if it prevents food getting into shops or makes it more expensive to buy. That's why, in the end, the government will quietly ensure that it doesn't happen, so interfering with the market even more.
It won't happen. People will pay what they need to pay for food, so the shops will pay what they need to pay to stock it. The rest is fluff.
Just because businesses would prefer to pay less doesn't mean they won't pay more if they realise there is no alternative.
My local Tesco's now has a Costa Coffee machine. Indeed they seem to be everywhere nowadays. Not as much need for actual coffee shops or baristas making coffees for minimum wage if a machine can do it instead.
On Hancock, I really couldn't care less who he shags; that's his business.
But in my, and others', experience, having a clandestine extra-marital affair is extraordinarily time consuming and complex. I'm not sure how this fits with Hancock's repeated rhetoric of 'working round the clock', 'working 24/7', and so on to defeat the pandemic. How on earth could he find the time to sustain his marriage, have his affair, and defeat Covid without breaking lockdown rules? Baffling.
maybe he is "Mr Quickie"?
You still have to keep on top of the cover stories, forensics and keep knocking the nail in on the home front to allay suspicion. Nah, it ain't for the quitter.
Perhaps he thought it would get his boss's admiration? maybe he thought that imitation is the highest form of flattery and all that, but perhaps took it a bit far when he asked if he could have a turn on Carrie?
That reveals that you have a rather misogynistic view of the world
So basically you are saying that companies were using immigration from Europe to suppress wages?
There absolutely was competition from Europe, but that was more EU registered trucks filling up with cheap French diesel, doing a load of jobs here then going back again. Trucking like so many other industries only really opened the doors to migrant labour when there was a shortage of locals.
Some of that shortage will be driven by wages but also by conditions. The wages piece really becomes a problem now thanks to the IR35 changes where freelance drivers are suddenly treated as employees - the big spike in costs can't / won't be met anywhere in the supply chain so people have quit.
There is no shortage of locals, there's a shortage of locals willing to work on the terms and conditions that some employers want to pay. The solution to that is to let the market find a new equilibrium of terms and conditions.
If elements of the supply chain can't compete with higher costs then they'll go out of business and cease to require transport. So the problem goes away. Or they actually can absorb the costs, so they do, so the problem goes away.
Either way your "disruption" is actually the chaos of the market working as it is supposed to do. Not a problem.
Placing artificial barriers on the market's proper functioning - by, for example, limiting the supply of available labour - ultimately harms the consumer. That's basically OK if it means there are fewer coffee shops, restaurants and hotels to choose from, even if its reduces the numbers who can afford to enjoy them, but it's not fine if it prevents food getting into shops or makes it more expensive to buy. That's why, in the end, the government will quietly ensure that it doesn't happen, so interfering with the market even more.
It won't happen. People will pay what they need to pay for food, so the shops will pay what they need to pay to stock it. The rest is fluff.
Just because businesses would prefer to pay less doesn't mean they won't pay more if they realise there is no alternative.
My local Tesco's now has a Costa Coffee machine. Indeed they seem to be everywhere nowadays. Not as much need for actual coffee shops or baristas making coffees for minimum wage if a machine can do it instead.
Obviously people will pay what they need to in order not to starve. But they were told food was going to be cheaper and in more plentiful supply. And that's why the government will be forced to act. Making life more expensive when it can easily be prevented is never popular.
So why are all the farmers complaining about Australian competition?
At what time are we supposed to break out the singing of "four legs good, two legs bad" or whatever the patriotic song of the day is?
Whatever time it is, one should be suitably attired. It's ok lads, you don't have to wear them on your feet.
Very silly. Somewhat similar to people wearing skirts that were invented by an Anglo-German royal family in the belief they were traditional Scottish highland dress.
At what time are we supposed to break out the singing of "four legs good, two legs bad" or whatever the patriotic song of the day is?
Whatever time it is, one should be suitably attired. It's ok lads, you don't have to wear them on your feet.
Very silly. Somewhat similar to people wearing skirts that were invented by an Anglo-German royal family in the belief they were traditional Scottish highland dress.
You've been reading too many southern experts on Scotch things.
Re the Spitfire socks - isn't that degrading and shameful to the pilots of the squadrons? (And let's also remember those in the Hurricanes, and Defiants, and so on ...).
Starmer must be kicking himself. If he'd spent less time trying to put the past behind him by purging himself of everything Corbyn and instead turned his fire on Johnson he'd be soaring at the moment.
Maybe he still can but an image for what Labour look like now is difficult to make out. A rebrand is desperately needed. Whether it can happen under Starmer I don't know.
It would be easier with a change but who is there? Perhaps If David Milliband could be persuaded it would give them a look....Angela Raynor is just swapping deckchairs. There are 52% Remainers wandering around like zombies looking for a home.That's got to be the starting point.
Why bother with labour when the lib dems are the remain party
And with all due respect "Remain" is dead. It died on the alter of Covid and vaccine procurement. vote."
I'm afraid you're really out of touch Robert, which tends to happen when you don't live in a country. Not a criticism as I've been in the same situation myself many times.
It's true that 3 months ago there was considerable anti-EU feeling because of the vaccination procurement but that has changed now. We have all seen the EU catching up and, in some ways, overtaking the UK especially on their freedoms.
The current Remain polling is around 55% so that's nonsense to say that it has dropped to 30% or gone away. It's very much alive right now. A real sense that among the many problems hitting Boris Johnson, problems with Brexit are among them. The honeymoon is well and truly over.
Citation required.
There is a difference between “should we have Remained” with support ~50% and “should we rejoin” where the support is in the 30% range. The “Rejoin” camp are a minority and no evidence that’s changing.
Unless you have a Tardis the 50% number is irrelevant.
This is an absolutely crucial point.
Maybe 50% of people think leaving was an error.
But of these, perhaps only 60% would vote to rejoin in a referendum.
And of these, it is of overriding importance to maybe a third of these.
Quite a few Don't Knows too.
But I don't expect it to be in the manifesto of any major English party at the next GE, though EEA may well be LD policy.
Joining the EEA was of course, would be very similar to the policy which had a 2-1 majority in the 1975 referendum. Which, as I recall, was a generally truthful campaign. And enthusiastically supported by, among others, the Daily Mail.
My wife reports fresh food shortages when she returns from shopping trips. Nothing major, admittedly; niggles.
I suspect that if and when people can go on holiday to Europe again there will be similar niggles and inconveniences; the return of roaming charges is an example. Maybe longer passport queues.
I expect the biggest issue is likely to be the labour shortages. Road haulage being the big one at the moment, but it is a big slice of the NHS staffing issues too.
Yes the shortage isn't due to getting fresh across the border as we have simply taken back control by implementing very few checks on anything coming in - you can get randomly busted for stuff the customs officers want to eat, but otherwise it sails through for now.
The shortage is a crippling lack of drivers thanks to the combination of IR35 and Forrin go home
Alof of the foreigners going home are also IR35 related as previously there were able to pocket the money almost tax free - a lot of those drivers really don't want to be on HMRC books.
It should be added that the industry has asked for HGV driving to be added to the Labour shortage list and the Home Office has explicitly said No and given that everyone needs to be registered by next Wednesday bringing drivers back from Europe isn't a solution any more.
Is this a shortage of people wanting to be HGV drivers, or a shortage of trained ones? If the latter, there is an obvious solution for employers.
A shortage of trained drivers. Covid has largely stopped new driver training, which combined with an exodus of forrin drivers leaving and others unable / unwilling to drive under IR35 makes for a massive shortage.
"Just pay more" isn't the issue, a lot of people don't want to drive a truck which is why migrant labour was increasingly needed.
It's now a Mexican standoff. A hugely expensive overhaul of both wages and conditions are needed to attract people in so that the shortage doesn't get worse next year (this year is already fucked). But nobody can afford to pay as logistics is already crippled with high costs post BREXIT in an industry where the haulage bit was already the thin margins bit. The supermarkets are trying to recover from the extraordinary costs of Covid and have to cut costs for their new investors (Asda and soon Morrisons) and the manufacturing sector is similarly befuddled
Coats going up. Ability to swallow costs going down. Ultimately food price inflation is going to take off like a rocket.
Then we find a new price equilibrium. So what?
In the log run? Sure. Its just going to be very bumpy whilst we get there. Food being thrown away whilst supermarkets have shortages isn't a good outcome. That your government refuse to accept there is an issue doesn't help.
There isn't an issue.
ASDA not wanting to pay more is not the same thing as not being able to pay more.
If the government just opens the gates again and let's anyone in for minimum wage then yes the problem will go away. But considering YOUR PARTY is against homes for people coming in how is that a solution?
The issue will go away when a new equilibrium is reached under the law. If that causes disruption then businesses need to stop whinging that they want people to work for free negligible wages and start paying a market wage instead.
And we all need to be ready to pay the higher prices that will lead to.
Fine.
I don't want my products to be cheap solely because the people working on the chain to get them aren't earning a living wage.
We could have cheaper products by ensuring more stuff is made in sweatshops, is that what you want?
Eh? Brexit promised us cheaper food mate. Clearly that was more bollocks
Stay in the EU so we can exploit foreign workers
Quite catchy
There was some exploitation, as there still will be, but most of it was eastern Europeans doing jobs Brits didn't want.
Mostly skill and Labour shortages, after all any EU labour was paid the minimum wage, at least, so not exploited.
We shall shortly see how keen Britons are to work in logistics, hospitality, in health and social care and agriculture. They cannot work in them all simultaneously.
Two pointers to what will happen.
1) The building industry is finally investing in the lower level automation that, for example, the French use. If you look at a French domestic building site, it doesn't take much before they put up a small crane to move stuff around. UK sites just use a chain of Polish blokes. Mini diggers are finally taking over alot of manual digging... etc etc.
Interesting that you cite French building sites as better productivity. It's almost as if free movement of Labour within the EU doesn't account for the lamentable stagnation of productivity here. If free movement of Labour wasn't a drag on French productivity, why was it so here?
Unionisation? Just a guess but I seem to recall the French labour market is rather more restricted.
Quite simply, until quite recently, people were cheaper than machines in the UK. And when people break, you simply get another one. No capital cost....
The situation in France is that, due to the inflexibility of the labour market, it is cheaper to buy machinery than hire people.
The combination of the closing off of much of the cheap labour sources from COVID (which has had a bigger effect than BREXIT, to date, I think) and the recent tax break on buying equipment has changed this in the UK.
Starmer must be kicking himself. If he'd spent less time trying to put the past behind him by purging himself of everything Corbyn and instead turned his fire on Johnson he'd be soaring at the moment.
Maybe he still can but an image for what Labour look like now is difficult to make out. A rebrand is desperately needed. Whether it can happen under Starmer I don't know.
It would be easier with a change but who is there? Perhaps If David Milliband could be persuaded it would give them a look....Angela Raynor is just swapping deckchairs. There are 52% Remainers wandering around like zombies looking for a home.That's got to be the starting point.
Why bother with labour when the lib dems are the remain party
And with all due respect "Remain" is dead. It died on the alter of Covid and vaccine procurement. vote."
I'm afraid you're really out of touch Robert, which tends to happen when you don't live in a country. Not a criticism as I've been in the same situation myself many times.
It's true that 3 months ago there was considerable anti-EU feeling because of the vaccination procurement but that has changed now. We have all seen the EU catching up and, in some ways, overtaking the UK especially on their freedoms.
The current Remain polling is around 55% so that's nonsense to say that it has dropped to 30% or gone away. It's very much alive right now. A real sense that among the many problems hitting Boris Johnson, problems with Brexit are among them. The honeymoon is well and truly over.
Citation required.
There is a difference between “should we have Remained” with support ~50% and “should we rejoin” where the support is in the 30% range. The “Rejoin” camp are a minority and no evidence that’s changing.
Unless you have a Tardis the 50% number is irrelevant.
This is an absolutely crucial point.
Maybe 50% of people think leaving was an error.
But of these, perhaps only 60% would vote to rejoin in a referendum.
And of these, it is of overriding importance to maybe a third of these.
Quite a few Don't Knows too.
But I don't expect it to be in the manifesto of any major English party at the next GE, though EEA may well be LD policy.
Joining the EEA was of course, would be very similar to the policy which had a 2-1 majority in the 1975 referendum. Which, as I recall, was a generally truthful campaign. And enthusiastically supported by, among others, the Daily Mail.
My wife reports fresh food shortages when she returns from shopping trips. Nothing major, admittedly; niggles.
I suspect that if and when people can go on holiday to Europe again there will be similar niggles and inconveniences; the return of roaming charges is an example. Maybe longer passport queues.
I expect the biggest issue is likely to be the labour shortages. Road haulage being the big one at the moment, but it is a big slice of the NHS staffing issues too.
Yes the shortage isn't due to getting fresh across the border as we have simply taken back control by implementing very few checks on anything coming in - you can get randomly busted for stuff the customs officers want to eat, but otherwise it sails through for now.
The shortage is a crippling lack of drivers thanks to the combination of IR35 and Forrin go home
Alof of the foreigners going home are also IR35 related as previously there were able to pocket the money almost tax free - a lot of those drivers really don't want to be on HMRC books.
It should be added that the industry has asked for HGV driving to be added to the Labour shortage list and the Home Office has explicitly said No and given that everyone needs to be registered by next Wednesday bringing drivers back from Europe isn't a solution any more.
Is this a shortage of people wanting to be HGV drivers, or a shortage of trained ones? If the latter, there is an obvious solution for employers.
A shortage of trained drivers. Covid has largely stopped new driver training, which combined with an exodus of forrin drivers leaving and others unable / unwilling to drive under IR35 makes for a massive shortage.
"Just pay more" isn't the issue, a lot of people don't want to drive a truck which is why migrant labour was increasingly needed.
It's now a Mexican standoff. A hugely expensive overhaul of both wages and conditions are needed to attract people in so that the shortage doesn't get worse next year (this year is already fucked). But nobody can afford to pay as logistics is already crippled with high costs post BREXIT in an industry where the haulage bit was already the thin margins bit. The supermarkets are trying to recover from the extraordinary costs of Covid and have to cut costs for their new investors (Asda and soon Morrisons) and the manufacturing sector is similarly befuddled
Coats going up. Ability to swallow costs going down. Ultimately food price inflation is going to take off like a rocket.
Then we find a new price equilibrium. So what?
In the log run? Sure. Its just going to be very bumpy whilst we get there. Food being thrown away whilst supermarkets have shortages isn't a good outcome. That your government refuse to accept there is an issue doesn't help.
There isn't an issue.
ASDA not wanting to pay more is not the same thing as not being able to pay more.
If the government just opens the gates again and let's anyone in for minimum wage then yes the problem will go away. But considering YOUR PARTY is against homes for people coming in how is that a solution?
The issue will go away when a new equilibrium is reached under the law. If that causes disruption then businesses need to stop whinging that they want people to work for free negligible wages and start paying a market wage instead.
And we all need to be ready to pay the higher prices that will lead to.
Fine.
I don't want my products to be cheap solely because the people working on the chain to get them aren't earning a living wage.
We could have cheaper products by ensuring more stuff is made in sweatshops, is that what you want?
Eh? Brexit promised us cheaper food mate. Clearly that was more bollocks
Stay in the EU so we can exploit foreign workers
Quite catchy
There was some exploitation, as there still will be, but most of it was eastern Europeans doing jobs Brits didn't want.
Mostly skill and Labour shortages, after all any EU labour was paid the minimum wage, at least, so not exploited.
We shall shortly see how keen Britons are to work in logistics, hospitality, in health and social care and agriculture. They cannot work in them all simultaneously.
Two pointers to what will happen.
1) The building industry is finally investing in the lower level automation that, for example, the French use. If you look at a French domestic building site, it doesn't take much before they put up a small crane to move stuff around. UK sites just use a chain of Polish blokes. Mini diggers are finally taking over alot of manual digging... etc etc.
Interesting that you cite French building sites as better productivity. It's almost as if free movement of Labour within the EU doesn't account for the lamentable stagnation of productivity here. If free movement of Labour wasn't a drag on French productivity, why was it so here?
Because the French insisted immigrants learnt French and didn’t compromise. English was seen as a more valuable skill/many immigrants has some already plus we were ok with, for example, Polish speaking workplaces
Seems to be a common theme. Sage puts out a very high number (60%+) then weeks later it turns out to be a gross overestimate. Yet the original big number is already out there, and in the public consciousness.
Starmer must be kicking himself. If he'd spent less time trying to put the past behind him by purging himself of everything Corbyn and instead turned his fire on Johnson he'd be soaring at the moment.
Maybe he still can but an image for what Labour look like now is difficult to make out. A rebrand is desperately needed. Whether it can happen under Starmer I don't know.
It would be easier with a change but who is there? Perhaps If David Milliband could be persuaded it would give them a look....Angela Raynor is just swapping deckchairs. There are 52% Remainers wandering around like zombies looking for a home.That's got to be the starting point.
Why bother with labour when the lib dems are the remain party
And with all due respect "Remain" is dead. It died on the alter of Covid and vaccine procurement. vote."
I'm afraid you're really out of touch Robert, which tends to happen when you don't live in a country. Not a criticism as I've been in the same situation myself many times.
It's true that 3 months ago there was considerable anti-EU feeling because of the vaccination procurement but that has changed now. We have all seen the EU catching up and, in some ways, overtaking the UK especially on their freedoms.
The current Remain polling is around 55% so that's nonsense to say that it has dropped to 30% or gone away. It's very much alive right now. A real sense that among the many problems hitting Boris Johnson, problems with Brexit are among them. The honeymoon is well and truly over.
Citation required.
There is a difference between “should we have Remained” with support ~50% and “should we rejoin” where the support is in the 30% range. The “Rejoin” camp are a minority and no evidence that’s changing.
Unless you have a Tardis the 50% number is irrelevant.
This is an absolutely crucial point.
Maybe 50% of people think leaving was an error.
But of these, perhaps only 60% would vote to rejoin in a referendum.
And of these, it is of overriding importance to maybe a third of these.
Quite a few Don't Knows too.
But I don't expect it to be in the manifesto of any major English party at the next GE, though EEA may well be LD policy.
Joining the EEA was of course, would be very similar to the policy which had a 2-1 majority in the 1975 referendum. Which, as I recall, was a generally truthful campaign. And enthusiastically supported by, among others, the Daily Mail.
My wife reports fresh food shortages when she returns from shopping trips. Nothing major, admittedly; niggles.
I suspect that if and when people can go on holiday to Europe again there will be similar niggles and inconveniences; the return of roaming charges is an example. Maybe longer passport queues.
I expect the biggest issue is likely to be the labour shortages. Road haulage being the big one at the moment, but it is a big slice of the NHS staffing issues too.
Yes the shortage isn't due to getting fresh across the border as we have simply taken back control by implementing very few checks on anything coming in - you can get randomly busted for stuff the customs officers want to eat, but otherwise it sails through for now.
The shortage is a crippling lack of drivers thanks to the combination of IR35 and Forrin go home
Alof of the foreigners going home are also IR35 related as previously there were able to pocket the money almost tax free - a lot of those drivers really don't want to be on HMRC books.
It should be added that the industry has asked for HGV driving to be added to the Labour shortage list and the Home Office has explicitly said No and given that everyone needs to be registered by next Wednesday bringing drivers back from Europe isn't a solution any more.
Is this a shortage of people wanting to be HGV drivers, or a shortage of trained ones? If the latter, there is an obvious solution for employers.
There’s a great oddlots podcast on this - US focussed, but many of the issues are similar here.
Basically, being a driver ain’t all it’s cracked up to be. Razor thin margins. Constant boom/bust cycles.
In the US, it's mostly owner-operators. I.e., you want to be an HGV driver, you take the risk of owning the vehicle - even if you use someone else's brand.
Is it the same in the UK?
Yeah, it’s fascinating how little consolidation there is in US trucking. Also how Private Equity has steered clear of the sector. Seems to be lots of individual truck owner/drivers who suffer large turnover - and most of the rest are small companies, a sizeable chunk of which go bust every year.
Dunno about the specifics of UK freight and how it compares.
I think there are quite a few owner-operators. AIUI all that has to be bought is the tractor unit vehicle..... the one with the engine and the cab. The driver then hitches it up to a loaded trailer.
Starmer must be kicking himself. If he'd spent less time trying to put the past behind him by purging himself of everything Corbyn and instead turned his fire on Johnson he'd be soaring at the moment.
Maybe he still can but an image for what Labour look like now is difficult to make out. A rebrand is desperately needed. Whether it can happen under Starmer I don't know.
It would be easier with a change but who is there? Perhaps If David Milliband could be persuaded it would give them a look....Angela Raynor is just swapping deckchairs. There are 52% Remainers wandering around like zombies looking for a home.That's got to be the starting point.
Why bother with labour when the lib dems are the remain party
And with all due respect "Remain" is dead. It died on the alter of Covid and vaccine procurement. vote."
I'm afraid you're really out of touch Robert, which tends to happen when you don't live in a country. Not a criticism as I've been in the same situation myself many times.
It's true that 3 months ago there was considerable anti-EU feeling because of the vaccination procurement but that has changed now. We have all seen the EU catching up and, in some ways, overtaking the UK especially on their freedoms.
The current Remain polling is around 55% so that's nonsense to say that it has dropped to 30% or gone away. It's very much alive right now. A real sense that among the many problems hitting Boris Johnson, problems with Brexit are among them. The honeymoon is well and truly over.
Citation required.
There is a difference between “should we have Remained” with support ~50% and “should we rejoin” where the support is in the 30% range. The “Rejoin” camp are a minority and no evidence that’s changing.
Unless you have a Tardis the 50% number is irrelevant.
This is an absolutely crucial point.
Maybe 50% of people think leaving was an error.
But of these, perhaps only 60% would vote to rejoin in a referendum.
And of these, it is of overriding importance to maybe a third of these.
Quite a few Don't Knows too.
But I don't expect it to be in the manifesto of any major English party at the next GE, though EEA may well be LD policy.
Joining the EEA was of course, would be very similar to the policy which had a 2-1 majority in the 1975 referendum. Which, as I recall, was a generally truthful campaign. And enthusiastically supported by, among others, the Daily Mail.
My wife reports fresh food shortages when she returns from shopping trips. Nothing major, admittedly; niggles.
I suspect that if and when people can go on holiday to Europe again there will be similar niggles and inconveniences; the return of roaming charges is an example. Maybe longer passport queues.
I expect the biggest issue is likely to be the labour shortages. Road haulage being the big one at the moment, but it is a big slice of the NHS staffing issues too.
Yes the shortage isn't due to getting fresh across the border as we have simply taken back control by implementing very few checks on anything coming in - you can get randomly busted for stuff the customs officers want to eat, but otherwise it sails through for now.
The shortage is a crippling lack of drivers thanks to the combination of IR35 and Forrin go home
Alof of the foreigners going home are also IR35 related as previously there were able to pocket the money almost tax free - a lot of those drivers really don't want to be on HMRC books.
It should be added that the industry has asked for HGV driving to be added to the Labour shortage list and the Home Office has explicitly said No and given that everyone needs to be registered by next Wednesday bringing drivers back from Europe isn't a solution any more.
Is this a shortage of people wanting to be HGV drivers, or a shortage of trained ones? If the latter, there is an obvious solution for employers.
A shortage of trained drivers. Covid has largely stopped new driver training, which combined with an exodus of forrin drivers leaving and others unable / unwilling to drive under IR35 makes for a massive shortage.
"Just pay more" isn't the issue, a lot of people don't want to drive a truck which is why migrant labour was increasingly needed.
It's now a Mexican standoff. A hugely expensive overhaul of both wages and conditions are needed to attract people in so that the shortage doesn't get worse next year (this year is already fucked). But nobody can afford to pay as logistics is already crippled with high costs post BREXIT in an industry where the haulage bit was already the thin margins bit. The supermarkets are trying to recover from the extraordinary costs of Covid and have to cut costs for their new investors (Asda and soon Morrisons) and the manufacturing sector is similarly befuddled
Coats going up. Ability to swallow costs going down. Ultimately food price inflation is going to take off like a rocket.
Then we find a new price equilibrium. So what?
In the log run? Sure. Its just going to be very bumpy whilst we get there. Food being thrown away whilst supermarkets have shortages isn't a good outcome. That your government refuse to accept there is an issue doesn't help.
There isn't an issue.
ASDA not wanting to pay more is not the same thing as not being able to pay more.
If the government just opens the gates again and let's anyone in for minimum wage then yes the problem will go away. But considering YOUR PARTY is against homes for people coming in how is that a solution?
The issue will go away when a new equilibrium is reached under the law. If that causes disruption then businesses need to stop whinging that they want people to work for free negligible wages and start paying a market wage instead.
And we all need to be ready to pay the higher prices that will lead to.
Fine.
I don't want my products to be cheap solely because the people working on the chain to get them aren't earning a living wage.
We could have cheaper products by ensuring more stuff is made in sweatshops, is that what you want?
Eh? Brexit promised us cheaper food mate. Clearly that was more bollocks
Stay in the EU so we can exploit foreign workers
Quite catchy
There was some exploitation, as there still will be, but most of it was eastern Europeans doing jobs Brits didn't want.
Mostly skill and Labour shortages, after all any EU labour was paid the minimum wage, at least, so not exploited.
We shall shortly see how keen Britons are to work in logistics, hospitality, in health and social care and agriculture. They cannot work in them all simultaneously.
Two pointers to what will happen.
1) The building industry is finally investing in the lower level automation that, for example, the French use. If you look at a French domestic building site, it doesn't take much before they put up a small crane to move stuff around. UK sites just use a chain of Polish blokes. Mini diggers are finally taking over alot of manual digging... etc etc.
Interesting that you cite French building sites as better productivity. It's almost as if free movement of Labour within the EU doesn't account for the lamentable stagnation of productivity here. If free movement of Labour wasn't a drag on French productivity, why was it so here?
Unionisation? Just a guess but I seem to recall the French labour market is rather more restricted.
So plenty of things that could have been done within the EU to improve productivity and prevent labour exploitation, if the government had been arsed.
More unionisation and regulation of the Labour Market? That's not a CBA, that's a deliberate rejection.
I was angry when Cummings broken the rules to have a holiday in Barnard Castle and I'm angry now.
Be interesting to see what the snap polling shows on the public view of this.
I'm not a fan of Question Time these days, but I watched the first question last night, which was about letting in UEFA big-wigs, sponsors and so on the watch the UEFA Cup Final. All, I think, except one of the audience, and he was somewhat half-hearted, thought it was wrong, and only Robert Buckland ..... well, he had to to, didn't he ...... of the panel defended it. He wasn't all that keen either.
Similar in the pub the other afternoon...... except of course that RB wasn't there!
I am beginning to feel that 'peak Boris' has passed, and things are going downhill quite rapidly. Might give a new dimension to B&S, too.
Interestingly, on my shopping trip out yesterday, I noticed for the first that mask wearing was starting to slip. Several people (men mainly) had them on but pushed down under their chins so it was pointless. To date my patch has been pretty strict on the rules from what I've seen. Things are starting to slip.
I wonder whether the rows over the elite being exempted all over the place are part of this?
Isn’t more that people are starting to click that ‘positive tests’ aren’t translating into deaths, and that the vaccines - guess what?! - work?
Los Angeles County says nearly all coronavirus cases over the past 6 months were in those who weren't vaccinated:
Ben Kentish @BenKentish · 13m The law that was in place on 6th May says clearly: “No person may participate in a gathering in the Step 2 area which—(a)consists of two or more people, and (b)takes place indoors.” There are lots of exemptions but none that would seem to apply to kissing a colleague.
Starmer must be kicking himself. If he'd spent less time trying to put the past behind him by purging himself of everything Corbyn and instead turned his fire on Johnson he'd be soaring at the moment.
Maybe he still can but an image for what Labour look like now is difficult to make out. A rebrand is desperately needed. Whether it can happen under Starmer I don't know.
It would be easier with a change but who is there? Perhaps If David Milliband could be persuaded it would give them a look....Angela Raynor is just swapping deckchairs. There are 52% Remainers wandering around like zombies looking for a home.That's got to be the starting point.
Why bother with labour when the lib dems are the remain party
And with all due respect "Remain" is dead. It died on the alter of Covid and vaccine procurement. vote."
I'm afraid you're really out of touch Robert, which tends to happen when you don't live in a country. Not a criticism as I've been in the same situation myself many times.
It's true that 3 months ago there was considerable anti-EU feeling because of the vaccination procurement but that has changed now. We have all seen the EU catching up and, in some ways, overtaking the UK especially on their freedoms.
The current Remain polling is around 55% so that's nonsense to say that it has dropped to 30% or gone away. It's very much alive right now. A real sense that among the many problems hitting Boris Johnson, problems with Brexit are among them. The honeymoon is well and truly over.
Citation required.
There is a difference between “should we have Remained” with support ~50% and “should we rejoin” where the support is in the 30% range. The “Rejoin” camp are a minority and no evidence that’s changing.
Unless you have a Tardis the 50% number is irrelevant.
This is an absolutely crucial point.
Maybe 50% of people think leaving was an error.
But of these, perhaps only 60% would vote to rejoin in a referendum.
And of these, it is of overriding importance to maybe a third of these.
Quite a few Don't Knows too.
But I don't expect it to be in the manifesto of any major English party at the next GE, though EEA may well be LD policy.
Joining the EEA was of course, would be very similar to the policy which had a 2-1 majority in the 1975 referendum. Which, as I recall, was a generally truthful campaign. And enthusiastically supported by, among others, the Daily Mail.
My wife reports fresh food shortages when she returns from shopping trips. Nothing major, admittedly; niggles.
I suspect that if and when people can go on holiday to Europe again there will be similar niggles and inconveniences; the return of roaming charges is an example. Maybe longer passport queues.
I expect the biggest issue is likely to be the labour shortages. Road haulage being the big one at the moment, but it is a big slice of the NHS staffing issues too.
Yes the shortage isn't due to getting fresh across the border as we have simply taken back control by implementing very few checks on anything coming in - you can get randomly busted for stuff the customs officers want to eat, but otherwise it sails through for now.
The shortage is a crippling lack of drivers thanks to the combination of IR35 and Forrin go home
Alof of the foreigners going home are also IR35 related as previously there were able to pocket the money almost tax free - a lot of those drivers really don't want to be on HMRC books.
It should be added that the industry has asked for HGV driving to be added to the Labour shortage list and the Home Office has explicitly said No and given that everyone needs to be registered by next Wednesday bringing drivers back from Europe isn't a solution any more.
Is this a shortage of people wanting to be HGV drivers, or a shortage of trained ones? If the latter, there is an obvious solution for employers.
A shortage of trained drivers. Covid has largely stopped new driver training, which combined with an exodus of forrin drivers leaving and others unable / unwilling to drive under IR35 makes for a massive shortage.
"Just pay more" isn't the issue, a lot of people don't want to drive a truck which is why migrant labour was increasingly needed.
It's now a Mexican standoff. A hugely expensive overhaul of both wages and conditions are needed to attract people in so that the shortage doesn't get worse next year (this year is already fucked). But nobody can afford to pay as logistics is already crippled with high costs post BREXIT in an industry where the haulage bit was already the thin margins bit. The supermarkets are trying to recover from the extraordinary costs of Covid and have to cut costs for their new investors (Asda and soon Morrisons) and the manufacturing sector is similarly befuddled
Coats going up. Ability to swallow costs going down. Ultimately food price inflation is going to take off like a rocket.
Then we find a new price equilibrium. So what?
In the log run? Sure. Its just going to be very bumpy whilst we get there. Food being thrown away whilst supermarkets have shortages isn't a good outcome. That your government refuse to accept there is an issue doesn't help.
There isn't an issue.
ASDA not wanting to pay more is not the same thing as not being able to pay more.
If the government just opens the gates again and let's anyone in for minimum wage then yes the problem will go away. But considering YOUR PARTY is against homes for people coming in how is that a solution?
The issue will go away when a new equilibrium is reached under the law. If that causes disruption then businesses need to stop whinging that they want people to work for free negligible wages and start paying a market wage instead.
And we all need to be ready to pay the higher prices that will lead to.
Fine.
I don't want my products to be cheap solely because the people working on the chain to get them aren't earning a living wage.
We could have cheaper products by ensuring more stuff is made in sweatshops, is that what you want?
Eh? Brexit promised us cheaper food mate. Clearly that was more bollocks
Stay in the EU so we can exploit foreign workers
Quite catchy
There was some exploitation, as there still will be, but most of it was eastern Europeans doing jobs Brits didn't want.
Mostly skill and Labour shortages, after all any EU labour was paid the minimum wage, at least, so not exploited.
We shall shortly see how keen Britons are to work in logistics, hospitality, in health and social care and agriculture. They cannot work in them all simultaneously.
Two pointers to what will happen.
1) The building industry is finally investing in the lower level automation that, for example, the French use. If you look at a French domestic building site, it doesn't take much before they put up a small crane to move stuff around. UK sites just use a chain of Polish blokes. Mini diggers are finally taking over alot of manual digging... etc etc.
Interesting that you cite French building sites as better productivity. It's almost as if free movement of Labour within the EU doesn't account for the lamentable stagnation of productivity here. If free movement of Labour wasn't a drag on French productivity, why was it so here?
The UK has a much freer labour market than France.
No merde Sherlock !!
( I was going to say Hercule, but then I knew someone would point out he was Belgian)
So basically you are saying that companies were using immigration from Europe to suppress wages?
There absolutely was competition from Europe, but that was more EU registered trucks filling up with cheap French diesel, doing a load of jobs here then going back again. Trucking like so many other industries only really opened the doors to migrant labour when there was a shortage of locals.
Some of that shortage will be driven by wages but also by conditions. The wages piece really becomes a problem now thanks to the IR35 changes where freelance drivers are suddenly treated as employees - the big spike in costs can't / won't be met anywhere in the supply chain so people have quit.
There is no shortage of locals, there's a shortage of locals willing to work on the terms and conditions that some employers want to pay. The solution to that is to let the market find a new equilibrium of terms and conditions.
If elements of the supply chain can't compete with higher costs then they'll go out of business and cease to require transport. So the problem goes away. Or they actually can absorb the costs, so they do, so the problem goes away.
Either way your "disruption" is actually the chaos of the market working as it is supposed to do. Not a problem.
Placing artificial barriers on the market's proper functioning - by, for example, limiting the supply of available labour - ultimately harms the consumer. That's basically OK if it means there are fewer coffee shops, restaurants and hotels to choose from, even if its reduces the numbers who can afford to enjoy them, but it's not fine if it prevents food getting into shops or makes it more expensive to buy. That's why, in the end, the government will quietly ensure that it doesn't happen, so interfering with the market even more.
It won't happen. People will pay what they need to pay for food, so the shops will pay what they need to pay to stock it. The rest is fluff.
Just because businesses would prefer to pay less doesn't mean they won't pay more if they realise there is no alternative.
My local Tesco's now has a Costa Coffee machine. Indeed they seem to be everywhere nowadays. Not as much need for actual coffee shops or baristas making coffees for minimum wage if a machine can do it instead.
Obviously people will pay what they need to in order not to starve. But they were told food was going to be cheaper and in more plentiful supply. And that's why the government will be forced to act. Making life more expensive when it can easily be prevented is never popular.
So why are all the farmers complaining about Australian competition?
Because, like the fishermen, they have realised the government lied to them.
Starmer must be kicking himself. If he'd spent less time trying to put the past behind him by purging himself of everything Corbyn and instead turned his fire on Johnson he'd be soaring at the moment.
Maybe he still can but an image for what Labour look like now is difficult to make out. A rebrand is desperately needed. Whether it can happen under Starmer I don't know.
It would be easier with a change but who is there? Perhaps If David Milliband could be persuaded it would give them a look....Angela Raynor is just swapping deckchairs. There are 52% Remainers wandering around like zombies looking for a home.That's got to be the starting point.
Why bother with labour when the lib dems are the remain party
And with all due respect "Remain" is dead. It died on the alter of Covid and vaccine procurement. vote."
I'm afraid you're really out of touch Robert, which tends to happen when you don't live in a country. Not a criticism as I've been in the same situation myself many times.
It's true that 3 months ago there was considerable anti-EU feeling because of the vaccination procurement but that has changed now. We have all seen the EU catching up and, in some ways, overtaking the UK especially on their freedoms.
The current Remain polling is around 55% so that's nonsense to say that it has dropped to 30% or gone away. It's very much alive right now. A real sense that among the many problems hitting Boris Johnson, problems with Brexit are among them. The honeymoon is well and truly over.
Citation required.
There is a difference between “should we have Remained” with support ~50% and “should we rejoin” where the support is in the 30% range. The “Rejoin” camp are a minority and no evidence that’s changing.
Unless you have a Tardis the 50% number is irrelevant.
This is an absolutely crucial point.
Maybe 50% of people think leaving was an error.
But of these, perhaps only 60% would vote to rejoin in a referendum.
And of these, it is of overriding importance to maybe a third of these.
Quite a few Don't Knows too.
But I don't expect it to be in the manifesto of any major English party at the next GE, though EEA may well be LD policy.
Joining the EEA was of course, would be very similar to the policy which had a 2-1 majority in the 1975 referendum. Which, as I recall, was a generally truthful campaign. And enthusiastically supported by, among others, the Daily Mail.
My wife reports fresh food shortages when she returns from shopping trips. Nothing major, admittedly; niggles.
I suspect that if and when people can go on holiday to Europe again there will be similar niggles and inconveniences; the return of roaming charges is an example. Maybe longer passport queues.
I expect the biggest issue is likely to be the labour shortages. Road haulage being the big one at the moment, but it is a big slice of the NHS staffing issues too.
Yes the shortage isn't due to getting fresh across the border as we have simply taken back control by implementing very few checks on anything coming in - you can get randomly busted for stuff the customs officers want to eat, but otherwise it sails through for now.
The shortage is a crippling lack of drivers thanks to the combination of IR35 and Forrin go home
Alof of the foreigners going home are also IR35 related as previously there were able to pocket the money almost tax free - a lot of those drivers really don't want to be on HMRC books.
It should be added that the industry has asked for HGV driving to be added to the Labour shortage list and the Home Office has explicitly said No and given that everyone needs to be registered by next Wednesday bringing drivers back from Europe isn't a solution any more.
Is this a shortage of people wanting to be HGV drivers, or a shortage of trained ones? If the latter, there is an obvious solution for employers.
A shortage of trained drivers. Covid has largely stopped new driver training, which combined with an exodus of forrin drivers leaving and others unable / unwilling to drive under IR35 makes for a massive shortage.
"Just pay more" isn't the issue, a lot of people don't want to drive a truck which is why migrant labour was increasingly needed.
It's now a Mexican standoff. A hugely expensive overhaul of both wages and conditions are needed to attract people in so that the shortage doesn't get worse next year (this year is already fucked). But nobody can afford to pay as logistics is already crippled with high costs post BREXIT in an industry where the haulage bit was already the thin margins bit. The supermarkets are trying to recover from the extraordinary costs of Covid and have to cut costs for their new investors (Asda and soon Morrisons) and the manufacturing sector is similarly befuddled
Coats going up. Ability to swallow costs going down. Ultimately food price inflation is going to take off like a rocket.
Then we find a new price equilibrium. So what?
In the log run? Sure. Its just going to be very bumpy whilst we get there. Food being thrown away whilst supermarkets have shortages isn't a good outcome. That your government refuse to accept there is an issue doesn't help.
There isn't an issue.
ASDA not wanting to pay more is not the same thing as not being able to pay more.
If the government just opens the gates again and let's anyone in for minimum wage then yes the problem will go away. But considering YOUR PARTY is against homes for people coming in how is that a solution?
The issue will go away when a new equilibrium is reached under the law. If that causes disruption then businesses need to stop whinging that they want people to work for free negligible wages and start paying a market wage instead.
And we all need to be ready to pay the higher prices that will lead to.
Fine.
I don't want my products to be cheap solely because the people working on the chain to get them aren't earning a living wage.
We could have cheaper products by ensuring more stuff is made in sweatshops, is that what you want?
Eh? Brexit promised us cheaper food mate. Clearly that was more bollocks
Stay in the EU so we can exploit foreign workers
Quite catchy
There was some exploitation, as there still will be, but most of it was eastern Europeans doing jobs Brits didn't want.
Mostly skill and Labour shortages, after all any EU labour was paid the minimum wage, at least, so not exploited.
We shall shortly see how keen Britons are to work in logistics, hospitality, in health and social care and agriculture. They cannot work in them all simultaneously.
Two pointers to what will happen.
1) The building industry is finally investing in the lower level automation that, for example, the French use. If you look at a French domestic building site, it doesn't take much before they put up a small crane to move stuff around. UK sites just use a chain of Polish blokes. Mini diggers are finally taking over alot of manual digging... etc etc.
Interesting that you cite French building sites as better productivity. It's almost as if free movement of Labour within the EU doesn't account for the lamentable stagnation of productivity here. If free movement of Labour wasn't a drag on French productivity, why was it so here?
Unionisation? Just a guess but I seem to recall the French labour market is rather more restricted.
Quite simply, until quite recently, people were cheaper than machines in the UK. And when people break, you simply get another one. No capital cost....
The situation in France is that, due to the inflexibility of the labour market, it is cheaper to buy machinery than hire people.
The combination of the closing off of much of the cheap labour sources from COVID (which has had a bigger effect than BREXIT, to date, I think) and the recent tax break on buying equipment has changed this in the UK.
So, the verdict from the PB Tories is that unionisation and Labour market regulation could have prevented Labour exploitation and improved productivity growth before Brexit, but isn't needed now in the sunny uplands.
I was angry when Cummings broken the rules to have a holiday in Barnard Castle and I'm angry now.
Be interesting to see what the snap polling shows on the public view of this.
I'm not a fan of Question Time these days, but I watched the first question last night, which was about letting in UEFA big-wigs, sponsors and so on the watch the UEFA Cup Final. All, I think, except one of the audience, and he was somewhat half-hearted, thought it was wrong, and only Robert Buckland ..... well, he had to to, didn't he ...... of the panel defended it. He wasn't all that keen either.
Similar in the pub the other afternoon...... except of course that RB wasn't there!
I am beginning to feel that 'peak Boris' has passed, and things are going downhill quite rapidly. Might give a new dimension to B&S, too.
Interestingly, on my shopping trip out yesterday, I noticed for the first that mask wearing was starting to slip. Several people (men mainly) had them on but pushed down under their chins so it was pointless. To date my patch has been pretty strict on the rules from what I've seen. Things are starting to slip.
I wonder whether the rows over the elite being exempted all over the place are part of this?
Isn’t more that people are starting to click that ‘positive tests’ aren’t translating into deaths, and that the vaccines - guess what?! - work?
Los Angeles County says nearly all coronavirus cases over the past 6 months were in those who weren't vaccinated:
Those figers aren't quite as good as they first look, 6 months ago there where lots of cases/deaths/hepatisations, and very little vaccination, not its the other way round, if you brock that 6 month block in to 6 one month blocks, the numbers would still show vaccines to be very efficient but not quite as good.
?????....if lots of cases months ago because of lower vaccination coverage that is surely even better i.e. we are seeing virtually no vaccine escape.and they are reaching herd immunity.
Starmer must be kicking himself. If he'd spent less time trying to put the past behind him by purging himself of everything Corbyn and instead turned his fire on Johnson he'd be soaring at the moment.
Maybe he still can but an image for what Labour look like now is difficult to make out. A rebrand is desperately needed. Whether it can happen under Starmer I don't know.
It would be easier with a change but who is there? Perhaps If David Milliband could be persuaded it would give them a look....Angela Raynor is just swapping deckchairs. There are 52% Remainers wandering around like zombies looking for a home.That's got to be the starting point.
Why bother with labour when the lib dems are the remain party
And with all due respect "Remain" is dead. It died on the alter of Covid and vaccine procurement. vote."
I'm afraid you're really out of touch Robert, which tends to happen when you don't live in a country. Not a criticism as I've been in the same situation myself many times.
It's true that 3 months ago there was considerable anti-EU feeling because of the vaccination procurement but that has changed now. We have all seen the EU catching up and, in some ways, overtaking the UK especially on their freedoms.
The current Remain polling is around 55% so that's nonsense to say that it has dropped to 30% or gone away. It's very much alive right now. A real sense that among the many problems hitting Boris Johnson, problems with Brexit are among them. The honeymoon is well and truly over.
Citation required.
There is a difference between “should we have Remained” with support ~50% and “should we rejoin” where the support is in the 30% range. The “Rejoin” camp are a minority and no evidence that’s changing.
Unless you have a Tardis the 50% number is irrelevant.
This is an absolutely crucial point.
Maybe 50% of people think leaving was an error.
But of these, perhaps only 60% would vote to rejoin in a referendum.
And of these, it is of overriding importance to maybe a third of these.
Quite a few Don't Knows too.
But I don't expect it to be in the manifesto of any major English party at the next GE, though EEA may well be LD policy.
Joining the EEA was of course, would be very similar to the policy which had a 2-1 majority in the 1975 referendum. Which, as I recall, was a generally truthful campaign. And enthusiastically supported by, among others, the Daily Mail.
My wife reports fresh food shortages when she returns from shopping trips. Nothing major, admittedly; niggles.
I suspect that if and when people can go on holiday to Europe again there will be similar niggles and inconveniences; the return of roaming charges is an example. Maybe longer passport queues.
I expect the biggest issue is likely to be the labour shortages. Road haulage being the big one at the moment, but it is a big slice of the NHS staffing issues too.
Yes the shortage isn't due to getting fresh across the border as we have simply taken back control by implementing very few checks on anything coming in - you can get randomly busted for stuff the customs officers want to eat, but otherwise it sails through for now.
The shortage is a crippling lack of drivers thanks to the combination of IR35 and Forrin go home
Alof of the foreigners going home are also IR35 related as previously there were able to pocket the money almost tax free - a lot of those drivers really don't want to be on HMRC books.
It should be added that the industry has asked for HGV driving to be added to the Labour shortage list and the Home Office has explicitly said No and given that everyone needs to be registered by next Wednesday bringing drivers back from Europe isn't a solution any more.
Is this a shortage of people wanting to be HGV drivers, or a shortage of trained ones? If the latter, there is an obvious solution for employers.
A shortage of trained drivers. Covid has largely stopped new driver training, which combined with an exodus of forrin drivers leaving and others unable / unwilling to drive under IR35 makes for a massive shortage.
"Just pay more" isn't the issue, a lot of people don't want to drive a truck which is why migrant labour was increasingly needed.
It's now a Mexican standoff. A hugely expensive overhaul of both wages and conditions are needed to attract people in so that the shortage doesn't get worse next year (this year is already fucked). But nobody can afford to pay as logistics is already crippled with high costs post BREXIT in an industry where the haulage bit was already the thin margins bit. The supermarkets are trying to recover from the extraordinary costs of Covid and have to cut costs for their new investors (Asda and soon Morrisons) and the manufacturing sector is similarly befuddled
Coats going up. Ability to swallow costs going down. Ultimately food price inflation is going to take off like a rocket.
Then we find a new price equilibrium. So what?
In the log run? Sure. Its just going to be very bumpy whilst we get there. Food being thrown away whilst supermarkets have shortages isn't a good outcome. That your government refuse to accept there is an issue doesn't help.
There isn't an issue.
ASDA not wanting to pay more is not the same thing as not being able to pay more.
If the government just opens the gates again and let's anyone in for minimum wage then yes the problem will go away. But considering YOUR PARTY is against homes for people coming in how is that a solution?
The issue will go away when a new equilibrium is reached under the law. If that causes disruption then businesses need to stop whinging that they want people to work for free negligible wages and start paying a market wage instead.
And we all need to be ready to pay the higher prices that will lead to.
Fine.
I don't want my products to be cheap solely because the people working on the chain to get them aren't earning a living wage.
We could have cheaper products by ensuring more stuff is made in sweatshops, is that what you want?
Eh? Brexit promised us cheaper food mate. Clearly that was more bollocks
Stay in the EU so we can exploit foreign workers
Quite catchy
There was some exploitation, as there still will be, but most of it was eastern Europeans doing jobs Brits didn't want.
Mostly skill and Labour shortages, after all any EU labour was paid the minimum wage, at least, so not exploited.
We shall shortly see how keen Britons are to work in logistics, hospitality, in health and social care and agriculture. They cannot work in them all simultaneously.
The minimum wage is supposed to be a minimum, not a maximum.
Yes, but it is at a level that prevents exploitation.
It seems though that the problem in so many sectors is lack of workers with the right skills rather than their pay. We shall see soon enough if the market plugs the gap. Personally, I will be quite happy for exploitative capitalist employers go bust because of Labour demands.
Indeed, the bar on EU doctors looks like giving me as much leverage on overtime rates as I want. Wasn't that the point of Brexit, to empower sturdy British yeomen like myself?
Should skilled workers be on minimum wage? Would you be happy to earn minimum wage yourself?
I’m currently earning minimum wage. 🤷♂️
But you’ll likely spend the next decade getting £10k annual pay rises.
So basically you are saying that companies were using immigration from Europe to suppress wages?
There absolutely was competition from Europe, but that was more EU registered trucks filling up with cheap French diesel, doing a load of jobs here then going back again. Trucking like so many other industries only really opened the doors to migrant labour when there was a shortage of locals.
Some of that shortage will be driven by wages but also by conditions. The wages piece really becomes a problem now thanks to the IR35 changes where freelance drivers are suddenly treated as employees - the big spike in costs can't / won't be met anywhere in the supply chain so people have quit.
There is no shortage of locals, there's a shortage of locals willing to work on the terms and conditions that some employers want to pay. The solution to that is to let the market find a new equilibrium of terms and conditions.
If elements of the supply chain can't compete with higher costs then they'll go out of business and cease to require transport. So the problem goes away. Or they actually can absorb the costs, so they do, so the problem goes away.
Either way your "disruption" is actually the chaos of the market working as it is supposed to do. Not a problem.
Placing artificial barriers on the market's proper functioning - by, for example, limiting the supply of available labour - ultimately harms the consumer. That's basically OK if it means there are fewer coffee shops, restaurants and hotels to choose from, even if its reduces the numbers who can afford to enjoy them, but it's not fine if it prevents food getting into shops or makes it more expensive to buy. That's why, in the end, the government will quietly ensure that it doesn't happen, so interfering with the market even more.
The problem is that because of the use of a conveyor-belt* of low end workers from low cost countries, you can suppress wages below a sustainable level**.
Hence MHO (may adults living in a property) etc etc...
*They come in on the lowest end jobs, either move up and replaced, leave or get stuck in the shitty conditions. **Sustainable in the sense of actually living a decent life.
That may well be an issue. But let's not pretend that limiting labour supply is not going to have an impact on consumer choice and the prices that consumers pay. As I say, in some areas that will not matter. When it comes to basics, though, it will.
Is anyone pretending otherwise.
Seems to be working as intended so far and the only ones complaining are those content to use unlimited below market labour are now having to face the consequences of the decisions freely made to end that.
As I say, I can afford to pay higher prices and I knew that we were being lied to when we were told that Brexit would make food cheaper and increase consumer choice.
Ben Kentish @BenKentish · 13m The law that was in place on 6th May says clearly: “No person may participate in a gathering in the Step 2 area which—(a)consists of two or more people, and (b)takes place indoors.” There are lots of exemptions but none that would seem to apply to kissing a colleague.
THIS.
Why are Labour not going for the kill on this????
Most probably because many of the shadow cabinet have been up to similar stuff!
I see Brillo is 'taking a break' from Gammon Boomer News. I wonder if it's health related. The revolting fucker looks like he's being force fed so his liver can be made into pâté.
At what time are we supposed to break out the singing of "four legs good, two legs bad" or whatever the patriotic song of the day is?
Whatever time it is, one should be suitably attired. It's ok lads, you don't have to wear them on your feet.
What fresh hell is this?! Those machine gun ports are the wrong size, and position, for a Spit armed with cannon. Looks like there's 8 Brownings (two Hurricane-sized banks of four) per wing plus the cannon in that illustration. Amateurs. And guns that close to the wing tip? Appalling.
The story is that someone with access to government cctv is out to get Hancock. Who is it and were they encouraged?
Hunt?
Not his style. Who might be someone who is uncomfortable about sacking people but might think Hancock is "fucking hopeless"
It's got to be Cummings. A man who can hoodwink 52% of the country with nothing more than a couple of props a buffoon and a scant regard for truth is what is known in the whacky world of advertising as a genius.
Getting rid of a couple of useless employees of government such as Hancock and Johnson will be child's play
Starmer must be kicking himself. If he'd spent less time trying to put the past behind him by purging himself of everything Corbyn and instead turned his fire on Johnson he'd be soaring at the moment.
Maybe he still can but an image for what Labour look like now is difficult to make out. A rebrand is desperately needed. Whether it can happen under Starmer I don't know.
It would be easier with a change but who is there? Perhaps If David Milliband could be persuaded it would give them a look....Angela Raynor is just swapping deckchairs. There are 52% Remainers wandering around like zombies looking for a home.That's got to be the starting point.
Why bother with labour when the lib dems are the remain party
And with all due respect "Remain" is dead. It died on the alter of Covid and vaccine procurement. vote."
I'm afraid you're really out of touch Robert, which tends to happen when you don't live in a country. Not a criticism as I've been in the same situation myself many times.
It's true that 3 months ago there was considerable anti-EU feeling because of the vaccination procurement but that has changed now. We have all seen the EU catching up and, in some ways, overtaking the UK especially on their freedoms.
The current Remain polling is around 55% so that's nonsense to say that it has dropped to 30% or gone away. It's very much alive right now. A real sense that among the many problems hitting Boris Johnson, problems with Brexit are among them. The honeymoon is well and truly over.
Citation required.
There is a difference between “should we have Remained” with support ~50% and “should we rejoin” where the support is in the 30% range. The “Rejoin” camp are a minority and no evidence that’s changing.
Unless you have a Tardis the 50% number is irrelevant.
This is an absolutely crucial point.
Maybe 50% of people think leaving was an error.
But of these, perhaps only 60% would vote to rejoin in a referendum.
And of these, it is of overriding importance to maybe a third of these.
Quite a few Don't Knows too.
But I don't expect it to be in the manifesto of any major English party at the next GE, though EEA may well be LD policy.
Joining the EEA was of course, would be very similar to the policy which had a 2-1 majority in the 1975 referendum. Which, as I recall, was a generally truthful campaign. And enthusiastically supported by, among others, the Daily Mail.
My wife reports fresh food shortages when she returns from shopping trips. Nothing major, admittedly; niggles.
I suspect that if and when people can go on holiday to Europe again there will be similar niggles and inconveniences; the return of roaming charges is an example. Maybe longer passport queues.
I expect the biggest issue is likely to be the labour shortages. Road haulage being the big one at the moment, but it is a big slice of the NHS staffing issues too.
Yes the shortage isn't due to getting fresh across the border as we have simply taken back control by implementing very few checks on anything coming in - you can get randomly busted for stuff the customs officers want to eat, but otherwise it sails through for now.
The shortage is a crippling lack of drivers thanks to the combination of IR35 and Forrin go home
Alof of the foreigners going home are also IR35 related as previously there were able to pocket the money almost tax free - a lot of those drivers really don't want to be on HMRC books.
It should be added that the industry has asked for HGV driving to be added to the Labour shortage list and the Home Office has explicitly said No and given that everyone needs to be registered by next Wednesday bringing drivers back from Europe isn't a solution any more.
Is this a shortage of people wanting to be HGV drivers, or a shortage of trained ones? If the latter, there is an obvious solution for employers.
A shortage of trained drivers. Covid has largely stopped new driver training, which combined with an exodus of forrin drivers leaving and others unable / unwilling to drive under IR35 makes for a massive shortage.
"Just pay more" isn't the issue, a lot of people don't want to drive a truck which is why migrant labour was increasingly needed.
It's now a Mexican standoff. A hugely expensive overhaul of both wages and conditions are needed to attract people in so that the shortage doesn't get worse next year (this year is already fucked). But nobody can afford to pay as logistics is already crippled with high costs post BREXIT in an industry where the haulage bit was already the thin margins bit. The supermarkets are trying to recover from the extraordinary costs of Covid and have to cut costs for their new investors (Asda and soon Morrisons) and the manufacturing sector is similarly befuddled
Coats going up. Ability to swallow costs going down. Ultimately food price inflation is going to take off like a rocket.
Then we find a new price equilibrium. So what?
In the log run? Sure. Its just going to be very bumpy whilst we get there. Food being thrown away whilst supermarkets have shortages isn't a good outcome. That your government refuse to accept there is an issue doesn't help.
There isn't an issue.
ASDA not wanting to pay more is not the same thing as not being able to pay more.
If the government just opens the gates again and let's anyone in for minimum wage then yes the problem will go away. But considering YOUR PARTY is against homes for people coming in how is that a solution?
The issue will go away when a new equilibrium is reached under the law. If that causes disruption then businesses need to stop whinging that they want people to work for free negligible wages and start paying a market wage instead.
And we all need to be ready to pay the higher prices that will lead to.
Fine.
I don't want my products to be cheap solely because the people working on the chain to get them aren't earning a living wage.
We could have cheaper products by ensuring more stuff is made in sweatshops, is that what you want?
Eh? Brexit promised us cheaper food mate. Clearly that was more bollocks
Stay in the EU so we can exploit foreign workers
Quite catchy
There was some exploitation, as there still will be, but most of it was eastern Europeans doing jobs Brits didn't want.
Mostly skill and Labour shortages, after all any EU labour was paid the minimum wage, at least, so not exploited.
We shall shortly see how keen Britons are to work in logistics, hospitality, in health and social care and agriculture. They cannot work in them all simultaneously.
Two pointers to what will happen.
1) The building industry is finally investing in the lower level automation that, for example, the French use. If you look at a French domestic building site, it doesn't take much before they put up a small crane to move stuff around. UK sites just use a chain of Polish blokes. Mini diggers are finally taking over alot of manual digging... etc etc.
Interesting that you cite French building sites as better productivity. It's almost as if free movement of Labour within the EU doesn't account for the lamentable stagnation of productivity here. If free movement of Labour wasn't a drag on French productivity, why was it so here?
Unionisation? Just a guess but I seem to recall the French labour market is rather more restricted.
Quite simply, until quite recently, people were cheaper than machines in the UK. And when people break, you simply get another one. No capital cost....
The situation in France is that, due to the inflexibility of the labour market, it is cheaper to buy machinery than hire people.
The combination of the closing off of much of the cheap labour sources from COVID (which has had a bigger effect than BREXIT, to date, I think) and the recent tax break on buying equipment has changed this in the UK.
So, the verdict from the PB Tories is that unionisation and Labour market regulation could have prevented Labour exploitation and improved productivity growth before Brexit, but isn't needed now in the sunny uplands.
So basically you are saying that companies were using immigration from Europe to suppress wages?
There absolutely was competition from Europe, but that was more EU registered trucks filling up with cheap French diesel, doing a load of jobs here then going back again. Trucking like so many other industries only really opened the doors to migrant labour when there was a shortage of locals.
Some of that shortage will be driven by wages but also by conditions. The wages piece really becomes a problem now thanks to the IR35 changes where freelance drivers are suddenly treated as employees - the big spike in costs can't / won't be met anywhere in the supply chain so people have quit.
There is no shortage of locals, there's a shortage of locals willing to work on the terms and conditions that some employers want to pay. The solution to that is to let the market find a new equilibrium of terms and conditions.
If elements of the supply chain can't compete with higher costs then they'll go out of business and cease to require transport. So the problem goes away. Or they actually can absorb the costs, so they do, so the problem goes away.
Either way your "disruption" is actually the chaos of the market working as it is supposed to do. Not a problem.
Placing artificial barriers on the market's proper functioning - by, for example, limiting the supply of available labour - ultimately harms the consumer. That's basically OK if it means there are fewer coffee shops, restaurants and hotels to choose from, even if its reduces the numbers who can afford to enjoy them, but it's not fine if it prevents food getting into shops or makes it more expensive to buy. That's why, in the end, the government will quietly ensure that it doesn't happen, so interfering with the market even more.
It won't happen. People will pay what they need to pay for food, so the shops will pay what they need to pay to stock it. The rest is fluff.
Just because businesses would prefer to pay less doesn't mean they won't pay more if they realise there is no alternative.
My local Tesco's now has a Costa Coffee machine. Indeed they seem to be everywhere nowadays. Not as much need for actual coffee shops or baristas making coffees for minimum wage if a machine can do it instead.
Obviously people will pay what they need to in order not to starve. But they were told food was going to be cheaper and in more plentiful supply. And that's why the government will be forced to act. Making life more expensive when it can easily be prevented is never popular.
So why are all the farmers complaining about Australian competition?
Because Liar has opened the market to be flooded by cheap Australian imports which our high cost farming industry can't compete with. Its almost as if the Blue Labour Cult of which you are a flag-waving member (a) don't care about farming and (b) are clueless about it. The Conservative Party of old used to be an advocate for its natural base, whatever happened to it?
I was angry when Cummings broken the rules to have a holiday in Barnard Castle and I'm angry now.
Be interesting to see what the snap polling shows on the public view of this.
I'm not a fan of Question Time these days, but I watched the first question last night, which was about letting in UEFA big-wigs, sponsors and so on the watch the UEFA Cup Final. All, I think, except one of the audience, and he was somewhat half-hearted, thought it was wrong, and only Robert Buckland ..... well, he had to to, didn't he ...... of the panel defended it. He wasn't all that keen either.
Similar in the pub the other afternoon...... except of course that RB wasn't there!
I am beginning to feel that 'peak Boris' has passed, and things are going downhill quite rapidly. Might give a new dimension to B&S, too.
Interestingly, on my shopping trip out yesterday, I noticed for the first that mask wearing was starting to slip. Several people (men mainly) had them on but pushed down under their chins so it was pointless. To date my patch has been pretty strict on the rules from what I've seen. Things are starting to slip.
I wonder whether the rows over the elite being exempted all over the place are part of this?
Isn’t more that people are starting to click that ‘positive tests’ aren’t translating into deaths, and that the vaccines - guess what?! - work?
Los Angeles County says nearly all coronavirus cases over the past 6 months were in those who weren't vaccinated:
Those figers aren't quite as good as they first look, 6 months ago there where lots of cases/deaths/hepatisations, and very little vaccination, not its the other way round, if you brock that 6 month block in to 6 one month blocks, the numbers would still show vaccines to be very efficient but not quite as good.
?????....if lots of cases months ago because of lower vaccination coverage that is surely even better i.e. we are seeing virtually no vaccine escape.and they are reaching herd immunity.
I'm saying the numbers above 99.6%, 98.7% and 99.8% cover a 6 month time frame, in which a lot has changed. but if you brock that out and just looked at each month and the % for each, then the indavidul % would be lower, at least for the last few.
I'm not shore I'm very good at explaining this. but a bit complex to construct a worked example.
Ben Kentish @BenKentish · 13m The law that was in place on 6th May says clearly: “No person may participate in a gathering in the Step 2 area which—(a)consists of two or more people, and (b)takes place indoors.” There are lots of exemptions but none that would seem to apply to kissing a colleague.
THIS.
Why are Labour not going for the kill on this????
Most probably because many of the shadow cabinet have been up to similar stuff!
Didn't stop them with skewering Major over the family values stuff.
Seems to be a common theme. Sage puts out a very high number (60%+) then weeks later it turns out to be a gross overestimate. Yet the original big number is already out there, and in the public consciousness.
I think some people suggested at the time the early data may well be over estimating things because it was seeded in communities high in multi-generational households / very close family bonds and after returning from travel to India meeting up with the fam to inform them of situation in India, which isn't the representative situation of the average wider population.
Starmer must be kicking himself. If he'd spent less time trying to put the past behind him by purging himself of everything Corbyn and instead turned his fire on Johnson he'd be soaring at the moment.
Maybe he still can but an image for what Labour look like now is difficult to make out. A rebrand is desperately needed. Whether it can happen under Starmer I don't know.
It would be easier with a change but who is there? Perhaps If David Milliband could be persuaded it would give them a look....Angela Raynor is just swapping deckchairs. There are 52% Remainers wandering around like zombies looking for a home.That's got to be the starting point.
Why bother with labour when the lib dems are the remain party
And with all due respect "Remain" is dead. It died on the alter of Covid and vaccine procurement. vote."
I'm afraid you're really out of touch Robert, which tends to happen when you don't live in a country. Not a criticism as I've been in the same situation myself many times.
It's true that 3 months ago there was considerable anti-EU feeling because of the vaccination procurement but that has changed now. We have all seen the EU catching up and, in some ways, overtaking the UK especially on their freedoms.
The current Remain polling is around 55% so that's nonsense to say that it has dropped to 30% or gone away. It's very much alive right now. A real sense that among the many problems hitting Boris Johnson, problems with Brexit are among them. The honeymoon is well and truly over.
Citation required.
There is a difference between “should we have Remained” with support ~50% and “should we rejoin” where the support is in the 30% range. The “Rejoin” camp are a minority and no evidence that’s changing.
Unless you have a Tardis the 50% number is irrelevant.
This is an absolutely crucial point.
Maybe 50% of people think leaving was an error.
But of these, perhaps only 60% would vote to rejoin in a referendum.
And of these, it is of overriding importance to maybe a third of these.
Quite a few Don't Knows too.
But I don't expect it to be in the manifesto of any major English party at the next GE, though EEA may well be LD policy.
Joining the EEA was of course, would be very similar to the policy which had a 2-1 majority in the 1975 referendum. Which, as I recall, was a generally truthful campaign. And enthusiastically supported by, among others, the Daily Mail.
My wife reports fresh food shortages when she returns from shopping trips. Nothing major, admittedly; niggles.
I suspect that if and when people can go on holiday to Europe again there will be similar niggles and inconveniences; the return of roaming charges is an example. Maybe longer passport queues.
I expect the biggest issue is likely to be the labour shortages. Road haulage being the big one at the moment, but it is a big slice of the NHS staffing issues too.
Yes the shortage isn't due to getting fresh across the border as we have simply taken back control by implementing very few checks on anything coming in - you can get randomly busted for stuff the customs officers want to eat, but otherwise it sails through for now.
The shortage is a crippling lack of drivers thanks to the combination of IR35 and Forrin go home
Alof of the foreigners going home are also IR35 related as previously there were able to pocket the money almost tax free - a lot of those drivers really don't want to be on HMRC books.
It should be added that the industry has asked for HGV driving to be added to the Labour shortage list and the Home Office has explicitly said No and given that everyone needs to be registered by next Wednesday bringing drivers back from Europe isn't a solution any more.
Is this a shortage of people wanting to be HGV drivers, or a shortage of trained ones? If the latter, there is an obvious solution for employers.
A shortage of trained drivers. Covid has largely stopped new driver training, which combined with an exodus of forrin drivers leaving and others unable / unwilling to drive under IR35 makes for a massive shortage.
"Just pay more" isn't the issue, a lot of people don't want to drive a truck which is why migrant labour was increasingly needed.
It's now a Mexican standoff. A hugely expensive overhaul of both wages and conditions are needed to attract people in so that the shortage doesn't get worse next year (this year is already fucked). But nobody can afford to pay as logistics is already crippled with high costs post BREXIT in an industry where the haulage bit was already the thin margins bit. The supermarkets are trying to recover from the extraordinary costs of Covid and have to cut costs for their new investors (Asda and soon Morrisons) and the manufacturing sector is similarly befuddled
Coats going up. Ability to swallow costs going down. Ultimately food price inflation is going to take off like a rocket.
Then we find a new price equilibrium. So what?
In the log run? Sure. Its just going to be very bumpy whilst we get there. Food being thrown away whilst supermarkets have shortages isn't a good outcome. That your government refuse to accept there is an issue doesn't help.
There isn't an issue.
ASDA not wanting to pay more is not the same thing as not being able to pay more.
If the government just opens the gates again and let's anyone in for minimum wage then yes the problem will go away. But considering YOUR PARTY is against homes for people coming in how is that a solution?
The issue will go away when a new equilibrium is reached under the law. If that causes disruption then businesses need to stop whinging that they want people to work for free negligible wages and start paying a market wage instead.
And we all need to be ready to pay the higher prices that will lead to.
Fine.
I don't want my products to be cheap solely because the people working on the chain to get them aren't earning a living wage.
We could have cheaper products by ensuring more stuff is made in sweatshops, is that what you want?
Eh? Brexit promised us cheaper food mate. Clearly that was more bollocks
Stay in the EU so we can exploit foreign workers
Quite catchy
There was some exploitation, as there still will be, but most of it was eastern Europeans doing jobs Brits didn't want.
Mostly skill and Labour shortages, after all any EU labour was paid the minimum wage, at least, so not exploited.
We shall shortly see how keen Britons are to work in logistics, hospitality, in health and social care and agriculture. They cannot work in them all simultaneously.
Two pointers to what will happen.
1) The building industry is finally investing in the lower level automation that, for example, the French use. If you look at a French domestic building site, it doesn't take much before they put up a small crane to move stuff around. UK sites just use a chain of Polish blokes. Mini diggers are finally taking over alot of manual digging... etc etc.
Interesting that you cite French building sites as better productivity. It's almost as if free movement of Labour within the EU doesn't account for the lamentable stagnation of productivity here. If free movement of Labour wasn't a drag on French productivity, why was it so here?
Unionisation? Just a guess but I seem to recall the French labour market is rather more restricted.
Quite simply, until quite recently, people were cheaper than machines in the UK. And when people break, you simply get another one. No capital cost....
The situation in France is that, due to the inflexibility of the labour market, it is cheaper to buy machinery than hire people.
The combination of the closing off of much of the cheap labour sources from COVID (which has had a bigger effect than BREXIT, to date, I think) and the recent tax break on buying equipment has changed this in the UK.
So, the verdict from the PB Tories is that unionisation and Labour market regulation could have prevented Labour exploitation and improved productivity growth before Brexit, but isn't needed now in the sunny uplands.
🤔
Sigh.
The problem is about balance. The system was somewhat in equilibrium. Then essentially unlimited low skill, low cost labour was added to the system. The system found a new equilibrium. The result of that new equilibrium was BREXIT.
I voted Remain and have tried to highlight this issue over many years.
A relative in the building industry tried to get enforcement of standards (including minimum wage) in London. And was told, by an MP under a Labour government, that administrative* policy was to ignore this. He was told the same, later, under the coalition government.
*Meaning the low level policy enacted by the permanent structures of government, rather than a political decision.
So basically you are saying that companies were using immigration from Europe to suppress wages?
There absolutely was competition from Europe, but that was more EU registered trucks filling up with cheap French diesel, doing a load of jobs here then going back again. Trucking like so many other industries only really opened the doors to migrant labour when there was a shortage of locals.
Some of that shortage will be driven by wages but also by conditions. The wages piece really becomes a problem now thanks to the IR35 changes where freelance drivers are suddenly treated as employees - the big spike in costs can't / won't be met anywhere in the supply chain so people have quit.
There is no shortage of locals, there's a shortage of locals willing to work on the terms and conditions that some employers want to pay. The solution to that is to let the market find a new equilibrium of terms and conditions.
If elements of the supply chain can't compete with higher costs then they'll go out of business and cease to require transport. So the problem goes away. Or they actually can absorb the costs, so they do, so the problem goes away.
Either way your "disruption" is actually the chaos of the market working as it is supposed to do. Not a problem.
Placing artificial barriers on the market's proper functioning - by, for example, limiting the supply of available labour - ultimately harms the consumer. That's basically OK if it means there are fewer coffee shops, restaurants and hotels to choose from, even if its reduces the numbers who can afford to enjoy them, but it's not fine if it prevents food getting into shops or makes it more expensive to buy. That's why, in the end, the government will quietly ensure that it doesn't happen, so interfering with the market even more.
The problem is that because of the use of a conveyor-belt* of low end workers from low cost countries, you can suppress wages below a sustainable level**.
Hence MHO (may adults living in a property) etc etc...
*They come in on the lowest end jobs, either move up and replaced, leave or get stuck in the shitty conditions. **Sustainable in the sense of actually living a decent life.
That may well be an issue. But let's not pretend that limiting labour supply is not going to have an impact on consumer choice and the prices that consumers pay. As I say, in some areas that will not matter. When it comes to basics, though, it will.
Is anyone pretending otherwise.
Seems to be working as intended so far and the only ones complaining are those content to use unlimited below market labour are now having to face the consequences of the decisions freely made to end that.
As I say, I can afford to pay higher prices and I knew that we were being lied to when we were told that Brexit would make food cheaper and increase consumer choice.
Lord Frost is still claiming that Brexit will increase consumer choice.
His one-hour interview with Anand Menon last night is on YouTube and worth watching.
He smirks a lot when asked about our approach to the Northern Irish Protocol.
Ben Kentish @BenKentish · 13m The law that was in place on 6th May says clearly: “No person may participate in a gathering in the Step 2 area which—(a)consists of two or more people, and (b)takes place indoors.” There are lots of exemptions but none that would seem to apply to kissing a colleague.
THIS.
Why are Labour not going for the kill on this????
Cos Starmer was (allegedly) having it away with Baroness Chapman?
British productivity can basically be reduced to poor incentives for capital investment, and a low-skilled workforce.
Single market membership helped compensate for the latter, somewhat.
By supplying the low-skilled workforce.
Not really. I suspect rather that the net impact was to increased the average skill level.
Nonsense. The UK is a highly educated country which spends billions on education.
Importing people who have skills does increase the average, hence the skills list for immigration including things like Doctors. Importing people who don't but are willing to work for minimum wage does not.
So basically you are saying that companies were using immigration from Europe to suppress wages?
There absolutely was competition from Europe, but that was more EU registered trucks filling up with cheap French diesel, doing a load of jobs here then going back again. Trucking like so many other industries only really opened the doors to migrant labour when there was a shortage of locals.
Some of that shortage will be driven by wages but also by conditions. The wages piece really becomes a problem now thanks to the IR35 changes where freelance drivers are suddenly treated as employees - the big spike in costs can't / won't be met anywhere in the supply chain so people have quit.
There is no shortage of locals, there's a shortage of locals willing to work on the terms and conditions that some employers want to pay. The solution to that is to let the market find a new equilibrium of terms and conditions.
If elements of the supply chain can't compete with higher costs then they'll go out of business and cease to require transport. So the problem goes away. Or they actually can absorb the costs, so they do, so the problem goes away.
Either way your "disruption" is actually the chaos of the market working as it is supposed to do. Not a problem.
Placing artificial barriers on the market's proper functioning - by, for example, limiting the supply of available labour - ultimately harms the consumer. That's basically OK if it means there are fewer coffee shops, restaurants and hotels to choose from, even if its reduces the numbers who can afford to enjoy them, but it's not fine if it prevents food getting into shops or makes it more expensive to buy. That's why, in the end, the government will quietly ensure that it doesn't happen, so interfering with the market even more.
It won't happen. People will pay what they need to pay for food, so the shops will pay what they need to pay to stock it. The rest is fluff.
Just because businesses would prefer to pay less doesn't mean they won't pay more if they realise there is no alternative.
My local Tesco's now has a Costa Coffee machine. Indeed they seem to be everywhere nowadays. Not as much need for actual coffee shops or baristas making coffees for minimum wage if a machine can do it instead.
Obviously people will pay what they need to in order not to starve. But they were told food was going to be cheaper and in more plentiful supply. And that's why the government will be forced to act. Making life more expensive when it can easily be prevented is never popular.
So why are all the farmers complaining about Australian competition?
Because Liar has opened the market to be flooded by cheap Australian imports which our high cost farming industry can't compete with. Its almost as if the Blue Labour Cult of which you are a flag-waving member (a) don't care about farming and (b) are clueless about it. The Conservative Party of old used to be an advocate for its natural base, whatever happened to it?
You only have to look at the cost cutting to the British Council yesterday to see that Boris and Co understand the price of everything and the (longer term) value of nothing.
British productivity can basically be reduced to poor incentives for capital investment, and a low-skilled workforce.
Single market membership helped compensate for the latter, somewhat.
By supplying the low-skilled workforce.
Not really. I suspect rather that the net impact was to increased the average skill level.
Nonsense. The UK is a highly educated country which spends billions on education.
Importing people who have skills does increase the average, hence the skills list for immigration including things like Doctors. Importing people who don't but are willing to work for minimum wage does not.
The average EU migrant was better skilled than the average U.K. worker.
British productivity can basically be reduced to poor incentives for capital investment, and a low-skilled workforce.
Single market membership helped compensate for the latter, somewhat.
By supplying the low-skilled workforce.
Not really. I suspect rather that the net impact was to increased the average skill level.
Nonsense. The UK is a highly educated country which spends billions on education.
Importing people who have skills does increase the average, hence the skills list for immigration including things like Doctors. Importing people who don't but are willing to work for minimum wage does not.
The average EU migrant was better skilled than the average U.K. worker.
Prove me wrong.
If that's the case then why were so many earning minimum wage?
I was very skeptical that the Tories would take B&S (but then I was also disbelieving that they would take 'Pool)
But, the flare-up in Israel/Palestine came at a perfect time for GG to exploit it. Now, I would not be at all surprised to see Labour lose it because of GG.
But the point is: B&S was a completely unnecessary by-election.
SKS may be forensic. But, he is just useless at politics, which needs a certain grubby street wisdom.
The Jewish Chronicle reports that Muslims in B&S are boycotting Labour because
Labour’s position on Palestine Kim Leadbetter is a lesbian Sir Keir’s wife is Jewish
Cultural Diversity is to be applauded I suppose?
The inevitable endpoint of Wokeness and multi-kulti and CRT is people voting almost entirely on their race and identity, as that is all that ‘matters’
So Muslims will abandon Labour for a Gallowayish Muslim Party
And, in the end, many white people will vote for white pride and a White Party. It is already happening in the USA. We hurtle towards tragedy
So happy to live in a country with a welcoming policy towards migrants
If Scotland is such a wecoming country towards migrants, why do so few of them end up there?
My part of the north east is rammed full of them. The supermarkets have a significant selection of foods to cover the Polish and Russian communities, there's a fair number of English, we have Hungarian and Latvian kids in my daughter's rural primary school class etc etc
After growing up in London moving to Devon was a bit jarring, and Edinburgh is much the same. Sure, there are Polish food shops, but the statistics are quite clear that there's a lot less immigration to Scotland than England.
The answer as to why has nothing to do with how welcoming Scotland is, but is the same reason why Scotland's population has declined relative to England's for decades - London's economy is much stronger.
The SNP like to spin this myth of "difference" from England (but not Wales or Northern Ireland, for some curious reason). Almost all the data says attitudes are much more similar than different - but that does not suit the separatist's narrative.
The Tories like to spin this myth of "difference" from Europe (but not New Zealand or Canada, for some curious reason). Almost all the data says attitudes are much more similar than different - but that does not suit the separatist's narrative.
Ben Kentish @BenKentish · 13m The law that was in place on 6th May says clearly: “No person may participate in a gathering in the Step 2 area which—(a)consists of two or more people, and (b)takes place indoors.” There are lots of exemptions but none that would seem to apply to kissing a colleague.
THIS.
Why are Labour not going for the kill on this????
It's been a few hours, give them a chance. Probably waiting to see how/if the gov will seek to deflect or defend
I see Brillo is 'taking a break' from Gammon Boomer News. I wonder if it's health related. The revolting fucker looks like he's being force fed so his liver can be made into pâté.
At what time are we supposed to break out the singing of "four legs good, two legs bad" or whatever the patriotic song of the day is?
Whatever time it is, one should be suitably attired. It's ok lads, you don't have to wear them on your feet.
What fresh hell is this?! Those machine gun ports are the wrong size, and position, for a Spit armed with cannon. Looks like there's 8 Brownings (two Hurricane-sized banks of four) per wing plus the cannon in that illustration. Amateurs. And guns that close to the wing tip? Appalling.
No aerial mast, which was standard by the time the fuselage band came in (which should be Sky, not white). Aren't those code letters white rather than Medium Sea Grey? And isn't that a later mark of Merlin, with those exhausts and enlarged upper engine cowling on each side?
So basically you are saying that companies were using immigration from Europe to suppress wages?
There absolutely was competition from Europe, but that was more EU registered trucks filling up with cheap French diesel, doing a load of jobs here then going back again. Trucking like so many other industries only really opened the doors to migrant labour when there was a shortage of locals.
Some of that shortage will be driven by wages but also by conditions. The wages piece really becomes a problem now thanks to the IR35 changes where freelance drivers are suddenly treated as employees - the big spike in costs can't / won't be met anywhere in the supply chain so people have quit.
There is no shortage of locals, there's a shortage of locals willing to work on the terms and conditions that some employers want to pay. The solution to that is to let the market find a new equilibrium of terms and conditions.
If elements of the supply chain can't compete with higher costs then they'll go out of business and cease to require transport. So the problem goes away. Or they actually can absorb the costs, so they do, so the problem goes away.
Either way your "disruption" is actually the chaos of the market working as it is supposed to do. Not a problem.
Placing artificial barriers on the market's proper functioning - by, for example, limiting the supply of available labour - ultimately harms the consumer. That's basically OK if it means there are fewer coffee shops, restaurants and hotels to choose from, even if its reduces the numbers who can afford to enjoy them, but it's not fine if it prevents food getting into shops or makes it more expensive to buy. That's why, in the end, the government will quietly ensure that it doesn't happen, so interfering with the market even more.
The problem is that because of the use of a conveyor-belt* of low end workers from low cost countries, you can suppress wages below a sustainable level**.
Hence MHO (may adults living in a property) etc etc...
*They come in on the lowest end jobs, either move up and replaced, leave or get stuck in the shitty conditions. **Sustainable in the sense of actually living a decent life.
That may well be an issue. But let's not pretend that limiting labour supply is not going to have an impact on consumer choice and the prices that consumers pay. As I say, in some areas that will not matter. When it comes to basics, though, it will.
Is anyone pretending otherwise.
Seems to be working as intended so far and the only ones complaining are those content to use unlimited below market labour are now having to face the consequences of the decisions freely made to end that.
As I say, I can afford to pay higher prices and I knew that we were being lied to when we were told that Brexit would make food cheaper and increase consumer choice.
It is bringing in cheaper food and more consumer choice, we've just got a free trade deal with Australia to provide that and are negotiating with even more countries putting them on a level playing field rather than just having European imports.
So basically you are saying that companies were using immigration from Europe to suppress wages?
There absolutely was competition from Europe, but that was more EU registered trucks filling up with cheap French diesel, doing a load of jobs here then going back again. Trucking like so many other industries only really opened the doors to migrant labour when there was a shortage of locals.
Some of that shortage will be driven by wages but also by conditions. The wages piece really becomes a problem now thanks to the IR35 changes where freelance drivers are suddenly treated as employees - the big spike in costs can't / won't be met anywhere in the supply chain so people have quit.
There is no shortage of locals, there's a shortage of locals willing to work on the terms and conditions that some employers want to pay. The solution to that is to let the market find a new equilibrium of terms and conditions.
If elements of the supply chain can't compete with higher costs then they'll go out of business and cease to require transport. So the problem goes away. Or they actually can absorb the costs, so they do, so the problem goes away.
Either way your "disruption" is actually the chaos of the market working as it is supposed to do. Not a problem.
Placing artificial barriers on the market's proper functioning - by, for example, limiting the supply of available labour - ultimately harms the consumer. That's basically OK if it means there are fewer coffee shops, restaurants and hotels to choose from, even if its reduces the numbers who can afford to enjoy them, but it's not fine if it prevents food getting into shops or makes it more expensive to buy. That's why, in the end, the government will quietly ensure that it doesn't happen, so interfering with the market even more.
It won't happen. People will pay what they need to pay for food, so the shops will pay what they need to pay to stock it. The rest is fluff.
Just because businesses would prefer to pay less doesn't mean they won't pay more if they realise there is no alternative.
My local Tesco's now has a Costa Coffee machine. Indeed they seem to be everywhere nowadays. Not as much need for actual coffee shops or baristas making coffees for minimum wage if a machine can do it instead.
Obviously people will pay what they need to in order not to starve. But they were told food was going to be cheaper and in more plentiful supply. And that's why the government will be forced to act. Making life more expensive when it can easily be prevented is never popular.
So why are all the farmers complaining about Australian competition?
Because Liar has opened the market to be flooded by cheap Australian imports which our high cost farming industry can't compete with. Its almost as if the Blue Labour Cult of which you are a flag-waving member (a) don't care about farming and (b) are clueless about it. The Conservative Party of old used to be an advocate for its natural base, whatever happened to it?
Johnson has opened the UK market up to Aussie importers while making it much harder for farmers to export to the huge market on their doorstep. He lied to them, just as he lied to the fishing industry. It's what he does. Half the people in the country don't care. Because of the way they are distributed, it means the views of the other 50% are entirely irrelevant!
Holidays on agenda? Downing Street: “Chancellor Merkel will visit UK on Fri 2nd July. The Prime Minister will host her at Chequers. This will be a chance to discuss a range of issues, including deepening UK-Germany relationship & the global response to the coronavirus pandemic.”
So basically you are saying that companies were using immigration from Europe to suppress wages?
There absolutely was competition from Europe, but that was more EU registered trucks filling up with cheap French diesel, doing a load of jobs here then going back again. Trucking like so many other industries only really opened the doors to migrant labour when there was a shortage of locals.
Some of that shortage will be driven by wages but also by conditions. The wages piece really becomes a problem now thanks to the IR35 changes where freelance drivers are suddenly treated as employees - the big spike in costs can't / won't be met anywhere in the supply chain so people have quit.
There is no shortage of locals, there's a shortage of locals willing to work on the terms and conditions that some employers want to pay. The solution to that is to let the market find a new equilibrium of terms and conditions.
If elements of the supply chain can't compete with higher costs then they'll go out of business and cease to require transport. So the problem goes away. Or they actually can absorb the costs, so they do, so the problem goes away.
Either way your "disruption" is actually the chaos of the market working as it is supposed to do. Not a problem.
Placing artificial barriers on the market's proper functioning - by, for example, limiting the supply of available labour - ultimately harms the consumer. That's basically OK if it means there are fewer coffee shops, restaurants and hotels to choose from, even if its reduces the numbers who can afford to enjoy them, but it's not fine if it prevents food getting into shops or makes it more expensive to buy. That's why, in the end, the government will quietly ensure that it doesn't happen, so interfering with the market even more.
It won't happen. People will pay what they need to pay for food, so the shops will pay what they need to pay to stock it. The rest is fluff.
Just because businesses would prefer to pay less doesn't mean they won't pay more if they realise there is no alternative.
My local Tesco's now has a Costa Coffee machine. Indeed they seem to be everywhere nowadays. Not as much need for actual coffee shops or baristas making coffees for minimum wage if a machine can do it instead.
Obviously people will pay what they need to in order not to starve. But they were told food was going to be cheaper and in more plentiful supply. And that's why the government will be forced to act. Making life more expensive when it can easily be prevented is never popular.
So why are all the farmers complaining about Australian competition?
Because Liar has opened the market to be flooded by cheap Australian imports which our high cost farming industry can't compete with. Its almost as if the Blue Labour Cult of which you are a flag-waving member (a) don't care about farming and (b) are clueless about it. The Conservative Party of old used to be an advocate for its natural base, whatever happened to it?
Johnson has opened the UK market up to Aussie importers while making it much harder for farmers to export to the huge market on their doorstep. He lied to them, just as he lied to the fishing industry. It's what he does. Half the people in the country don't care. Because of the way they are distributed, it means the views of the other 50% are entirely irrelevant!
No lies. He said that we'd get free trade deals with Australia and other nations, and said we'd leave the Single Market.
We've left the Single Market and got a free trade deal. Exactly as he said would happen!!!!
I'm saying the numbers above 99.6%, 98.7% and 99.8% cover a 6 month time frame, in which a lot has changed. but if you brock that out and just looked at each month and the % for each, then the indavidul % would be lower, at least for the last few.
I'm not shore I'm very good at explaining this. but a bit complex to construct a worked example.
A simple way of explaining it is that, if 99% percent of people were unvaccinated during the period, then even if the vaccines were totally ineffective, around 99% of cases would still be in the unvaccinated.
I see Brillo is 'taking a break' from Gammon Boomer News. I wonder if it's health related. The revolting fucker looks like he's being force fed so his liver can be made into pâté.
At what time are we supposed to break out the singing of "four legs good, two legs bad" or whatever the patriotic song of the day is?
Whatever time it is, one should be suitably attired. It's ok lads, you don't have to wear them on your feet.
What fresh hell is this?! Those machine gun ports are the wrong size, and position, for a Spit armed with cannon. Looks like there's 8 Brownings (two Hurricane-sized banks of four) per wing plus the cannon in that illustration. Amateurs. And guns that close to the wing tip? Appalling.
I was very skeptical that the Tories would take B&S (but then I was also disbelieving that they would take 'Pool)
But, the flare-up in Israel/Palestine came at a perfect time for GG to exploit it. Now, I would not be at all surprised to see Labour lose it because of GG.
But the point is: B&S was a completely unnecessary by-election.
SKS may be forensic. But, he is just useless at politics, which needs a certain grubby street wisdom.
The Jewish Chronicle reports that Muslims in B&S are boycotting Labour because
Labour’s position on Palestine Kim Leadbetter is a lesbian Sir Keir’s wife is Jewish
Cultural Diversity is to be applauded I suppose?
The inevitable endpoint of Wokeness and multi-kulti and CRT is people voting almost entirely on their race and identity, as that is all that ‘matters’
So Muslims will abandon Labour for a Gallowayish Muslim Party
And, in the end, many white people will vote for white pride and a White Party. It is already happening in the USA. We hurtle towards tragedy
So happy to live in a country with a welcoming policy towards migrants
If Scotland is such a wecoming country towards migrants, why do so few of them end up there?
My part of the north east is rammed full of them. The supermarkets have a significant selection of foods to cover the Polish and Russian communities, there's a fair number of English, we have Hungarian and Latvian kids in my daughter's rural primary school class etc etc
After growing up in London moving to Devon was a bit jarring, and Edinburgh is much the same. Sure, there are Polish food shops, but the statistics are quite clear that there's a lot less immigration to Scotland than England.
The answer as to why has nothing to do with how welcoming Scotland is, but is the same reason why Scotland's population has declined relative to England's for decades - London's economy is much stronger.
The SNP like to spin this myth of "difference" from England (but not Wales or Northern Ireland, for some curious reason). Almost all the data says attitudes are much more similar than different - but that does not suit the separatist's narrative.
The Tories like to spin this myth of "difference" from Europe (but not New Zealand or Canada, for some curious reason). Almost all the data says attitudes are much more similar than different - but that does not suit the separatist's narrative.
I'm not sure that pointing that out refutes anything though.
Mr. eek, can't recall the timing last year but it was wet, very slippery, and very entertaining.
Was in November last year, wet and dry during the race. The race where Lewis won the championship, his car at the end looked like it had done a 24 hour race.
I see Brillo is 'taking a break' from Gammon Boomer News. I wonder if it's health related. The revolting fucker looks like he's being force fed so his liver can be made into pâté.
At what time are we supposed to break out the singing of "four legs good, two legs bad" or whatever the patriotic song of the day is?
Whatever time it is, one should be suitably attired. It's ok lads, you don't have to wear them on your feet.
What fresh hell is this?! Those machine gun ports are the wrong size, and position, for a Spit armed with cannon. Looks like there's 8 Brownings (two Hurricane-sized banks of four) per wing plus the cannon in that illustration. Amateurs. And guns that close to the wing tip? Appalling.
Interesting - I can only see the 2 cannon. Unless you mean those red patches on the leading edges, which look more like the yellow you see on the outer wings in some painting schemes. But with the colour wrong.
So basically you are saying that companies were using immigration from Europe to suppress wages?
There absolutely was competition from Europe, but that was more EU registered trucks filling up with cheap French diesel, doing a load of jobs here then going back again. Trucking like so many other industries only really opened the doors to migrant labour when there was a shortage of locals.
Some of that shortage will be driven by wages but also by conditions. The wages piece really becomes a problem now thanks to the IR35 changes where freelance drivers are suddenly treated as employees - the big spike in costs can't / won't be met anywhere in the supply chain so people have quit.
There is no shortage of locals, there's a shortage of locals willing to work on the terms and conditions that some employers want to pay. The solution to that is to let the market find a new equilibrium of terms and conditions.
If elements of the supply chain can't compete with higher costs then they'll go out of business and cease to require transport. So the problem goes away. Or they actually can absorb the costs, so they do, so the problem goes away.
Either way your "disruption" is actually the chaos of the market working as it is supposed to do. Not a problem.
Placing artificial barriers on the market's proper functioning - by, for example, limiting the supply of available labour - ultimately harms the consumer. That's basically OK if it means there are fewer coffee shops, restaurants and hotels to choose from, even if its reduces the numbers who can afford to enjoy them, but it's not fine if it prevents food getting into shops or makes it more expensive to buy. That's why, in the end, the government will quietly ensure that it doesn't happen, so interfering with the market even more.
The problem is that because of the use of a conveyor-belt* of low end workers from low cost countries, you can suppress wages below a sustainable level**.
Hence MHO (may adults living in a property) etc etc...
*They come in on the lowest end jobs, either move up and replaced, leave or get stuck in the shitty conditions. **Sustainable in the sense of actually living a decent life.
That may well be an issue. But let's not pretend that limiting labour supply is not going to have an impact on consumer choice and the prices that consumers pay. As I say, in some areas that will not matter. When it comes to basics, though, it will.
Is anyone pretending otherwise.
Seems to be working as intended so far and the only ones complaining are those content to use unlimited below market labour are now having to face the consequences of the decisions freely made to end that.
As I say, I can afford to pay higher prices and I knew that we were being lied to when we were told that Brexit would make food cheaper and increase consumer choice.
It is bringing in cheaper food and more consumer choice, we've just got a free trade deal with Australia to provide that and are negotiating with even more countries putting them on a level playing field rather than just having European imports.
I was very skeptical that the Tories would take B&S (but then I was also disbelieving that they would take 'Pool)
But, the flare-up in Israel/Palestine came at a perfect time for GG to exploit it. Now, I would not be at all surprised to see Labour lose it because of GG.
But the point is: B&S was a completely unnecessary by-election.
SKS may be forensic. But, he is just useless at politics, which needs a certain grubby street wisdom.
The Jewish Chronicle reports that Muslims in B&S are boycotting Labour because
Labour’s position on Palestine Kim Leadbetter is a lesbian Sir Keir’s wife is Jewish
Cultural Diversity is to be applauded I suppose?
The inevitable endpoint of Wokeness and multi-kulti and CRT is people voting almost entirely on their race and identity, as that is all that ‘matters’
So Muslims will abandon Labour for a Gallowayish Muslim Party
And, in the end, many white people will vote for white pride and a White Party. It is already happening in the USA. We hurtle towards tragedy
So happy to live in a country with a welcoming policy towards migrants
If Scotland is such a wecoming country towards migrants, why do so few of them end up there?
My part of the north east is rammed full of them. The supermarkets have a significant selection of foods to cover the Polish and Russian communities, there's a fair number of English, we have Hungarian and Latvian kids in my daughter's rural primary school class etc etc
After growing up in London moving to Devon was a bit jarring, and Edinburgh is much the same. Sure, there are Polish food shops, but the statistics are quite clear that there's a lot less immigration to Scotland than England.
The answer as to why has nothing to do with how welcoming Scotland is, but is the same reason why Scotland's population has declined relative to England's for decades - London's economy is much stronger.
The SNP like to spin this myth of "difference" from England (but not Wales or Northern Ireland, for some curious reason). Almost all the data says attitudes are much more similar than different - but that does not suit the separatist's narrative.
The Tories like to spin this myth of "difference" from Europe (but not New Zealand or Canada, for some curious reason). Almost all the data says attitudes are much more similar than different - but that does not suit the separatist's narrative.
British productivity can basically be reduced to poor incentives for capital investment, and a low-skilled workforce.
Single market membership helped compensate for the latter, somewhat.
By supplying the low-skilled workforce.
Not really. I suspect rather that the net impact was to increased the average skill level.
Nonsense. The UK is a highly educated country which spends billions on education.
Importing people who have skills does increase the average, hence the skills list for immigration including things like Doctors. Importing people who don't but are willing to work for minimum wage does not.
Or, even worse, importing people who are skilled to work in unskilled jobs, because it pays more than skilled jobs in their home countries.
Ben Kentish @BenKentish · 13m The law that was in place on 6th May says clearly: “No person may participate in a gathering in the Step 2 area which—(a)consists of two or more people, and (b)takes place indoors.” There are lots of exemptions but none that would seem to apply to kissing a colleague.
THIS.
Why are Labour not going for the kill on this????
Most probably because many of the shadow cabinet have been up to similar stuff!
Didn't stop them with skewering Major over the family values stuff.
So basically you are saying that companies were using immigration from Europe to suppress wages?
There absolutely was competition from Europe, but that was more EU registered trucks filling up with cheap French diesel, doing a load of jobs here then going back again. Trucking like so many other industries only really opened the doors to migrant labour when there was a shortage of locals.
Some of that shortage will be driven by wages but also by conditions. The wages piece really becomes a problem now thanks to the IR35 changes where freelance drivers are suddenly treated as employees - the big spike in costs can't / won't be met anywhere in the supply chain so people have quit.
There is no shortage of locals, there's a shortage of locals willing to work on the terms and conditions that some employers want to pay. The solution to that is to let the market find a new equilibrium of terms and conditions.
If elements of the supply chain can't compete with higher costs then they'll go out of business and cease to require transport. So the problem goes away. Or they actually can absorb the costs, so they do, so the problem goes away.
Either way your "disruption" is actually the chaos of the market working as it is supposed to do. Not a problem.
Placing artificial barriers on the market's proper functioning - by, for example, limiting the supply of available labour - ultimately harms the consumer. That's basically OK if it means there are fewer coffee shops, restaurants and hotels to choose from, even if its reduces the numbers who can afford to enjoy them, but it's not fine if it prevents food getting into shops or makes it more expensive to buy. That's why, in the end, the government will quietly ensure that it doesn't happen, so interfering with the market even more.
It won't happen. People will pay what they need to pay for food, so the shops will pay what they need to pay to stock it. The rest is fluff.
Just because businesses would prefer to pay less doesn't mean they won't pay more if they realise there is no alternative.
My local Tesco's now has a Costa Coffee machine. Indeed they seem to be everywhere nowadays. Not as much need for actual coffee shops or baristas making coffees for minimum wage if a machine can do it instead.
Obviously people will pay what they need to in order not to starve. But they were told food was going to be cheaper and in more plentiful supply. And that's why the government will be forced to act. Making life more expensive when it can easily be prevented is never popular.
So why are all the farmers complaining about Australian competition?
Because Liar has opened the market to be flooded by cheap Australian imports which our high cost farming industry can't compete with. Its almost as if the Blue Labour Cult of which you are a flag-waving member (a) don't care about farming and (b) are clueless about it. The Conservative Party of old used to be an advocate for its natural base, whatever happened to it?
Johnson has opened the UK market up to Aussie importers while making it much harder for farmers to export to the huge market on their doorstep. He lied to them, just as he lied to the fishing industry. It's what he does. Half the people in the country don't care. Because of the way they are distributed, it means the views of the other 50% are entirely irrelevant!
No lies. He said that we'd get free trade deals with Australia and other nations, and said we'd leave the Single Market.
We've left the Single Market and got a free trade deal. Exactly as he said would happen!!!!
He said there would be no downsides to leaving the single market and that farmers and fishermen would benefit from it happening. He lied. It's what he does. But, as I say, it doesn't matter: 50% of the population is like you and will forgive him anything. Because of the way you are distributed around the country it really doesn't matter what the other 50% believes.
I was angry when Cummings broken the rules to have a holiday in Barnard Castle and I'm angry now.
Be interesting to see what the snap polling shows on the public view of this.
I'm not a fan of Question Time these days, but I watched the first question last night, which was about letting in UEFA big-wigs, sponsors and so on the watch the UEFA Cup Final. All, I think, except one of the audience, and he was somewhat half-hearted, thought it was wrong, and only Robert Buckland ..... well, he had to to, didn't he ...... of the panel defended it. He wasn't all that keen either.
Similar in the pub the other afternoon...... except of course that RB wasn't there!
I am beginning to feel that 'peak Boris' has passed, and things are going downhill quite rapidly. Might give a new dimension to B&S, too.
Interestingly, on my shopping trip out yesterday, I noticed for the first that mask wearing was starting to slip. Several people (men mainly) had them on but pushed down under their chins so it was pointless. To date my patch has been pretty strict on the rules from what I've seen. Things are starting to slip.
I wonder whether the rows over the elite being exempted all over the place are part of this?
Isn’t more that people are starting to click that ‘positive tests’ aren’t translating into deaths, and that the vaccines - guess what?! - work?
Los Angeles County says nearly all coronavirus cases over the past 6 months were in those who weren't vaccinated:
I feel very sorry for the double vaccinated this morning.
Matt Hancock was the captain of the 'team' you were taking those vaccines for.
He was the captain of the 'team' you all made enormous sacrifices for.
How high up the his agenda was firing and indulging his sexual proclivities, versus 'safety' or any other priority...?
I of course would argue it was top of his agenda.
It wasn't what he was telling you to do, it was the fact he was telling you. It was the enormous power we gave him to affect the lives of ordinary people. He got off on it, and there were powerful forces that surely led him to not wanting to relinquish it.
As for the government not wanting you in lockdown 'a minute' longer than necessary, well, that argument, once an article of faith on here, has been atomised for ever.|
If you aren't annoyed this morning well, you will never be annoyed by anything the powerful do, ever.
I was very skeptical that the Tories would take B&S (but then I was also disbelieving that they would take 'Pool)
But, the flare-up in Israel/Palestine came at a perfect time for GG to exploit it. Now, I would not be at all surprised to see Labour lose it because of GG.
But the point is: B&S was a completely unnecessary by-election.
SKS may be forensic. But, he is just useless at politics, which needs a certain grubby street wisdom.
The Jewish Chronicle reports that Muslims in B&S are boycotting Labour because
Labour’s position on Palestine Kim Leadbetter is a lesbian Sir Keir’s wife is Jewish
Cultural Diversity is to be applauded I suppose?
The inevitable endpoint of Wokeness and multi-kulti and CRT is people voting almost entirely on their race and identity, as that is all that ‘matters’
So Muslims will abandon Labour for a Gallowayish Muslim Party
And, in the end, many white people will vote for white pride and a White Party. It is already happening in the USA. We hurtle towards tragedy
So happy to live in a country with a welcoming policy towards migrants
If Scotland is such a wecoming country towards migrants, why do so few of them end up there?
My part of the north east is rammed full of them. The supermarkets have a significant selection of foods to cover the Polish and Russian communities, there's a fair number of English, we have Hungarian and Latvian kids in my daughter's rural primary school class etc etc
After growing up in London moving to Devon was a bit jarring, and Edinburgh is much the same. Sure, there are Polish food shops, but the statistics are quite clear that there's a lot less immigration to Scotland than England.
The answer as to why has nothing to do with how welcoming Scotland is, but is the same reason why Scotland's population has declined relative to England's for decades - London's economy is much stronger.
The SNP like to spin this myth of "difference" from England (but not Wales or Northern Ireland, for some curious reason). Almost all the data says attitudes are much more similar than different - but that does not suit the separatist's narrative.
The Tories like to spin this myth of "difference" from Europe (but not New Zealand or Canada, for some curious reason). Almost all the data says attitudes are much more similar than different - but that does not suit the separatist's narrative.
Yes, that's why I oppose English nationalists and Scottish nationalists.
The inconsistency of some choosing one form of nationalism as superior to another is bizarre.
At what time are we supposed to break out the singing of "four legs good, two legs bad" or whatever the patriotic song of the day is?
Whatever time it is, one should be suitably attired. It's ok lads, you don't have to wear them on your feet.
Very silly. Somewhat similar to people wearing skirts that were invented by an Anglo-German royal family in the belief they were traditional Scottish highland dress.
Brilliant response
And you with your own Big G tartan. Perhaps as a good Unionist you could get Spitfire kilt socks made up?
I was desperate to get out on the roads, but neither Fox Jr nor any of their cousins seems bothered, and it isn't just about living in big cities.
I recruited for a reasonably well-paid job, for which one applicant said he'd refuse if we required him to come to the office more than once a fortnight, as there was no public transport link and he felt the climate impact of driving more often would be unacceptable. Didn't appear to be an excuse - he was very into climate issues generally. And I'm aware of several people who have told their employers that they'd like to go to meetings by train even if it takes longer, for the same reason. I have a middle-aged friend who loves travel but has said she will never fly again unless required to for work. The issue does seem to be cutting through gradually.
Interesting one.
My standard question to find if someone is actually serious and thoughtful about the issue is to ask a couple of questions:
1 - What is the EPC value of your house? (band, then number) 2 - How much energy does your house use every year?
A bit of consciousness raising, but also a very common blindspot. The two sectors where we have not heavily decarbonised are transport and residential. And of these, residential is the tough one, as there is a general dislike of investing in our own homes, and far too many demand government subsidies.
The average C02 put out by a house is around 5 tonnes a year. The average carbon footprint for a UK individual is now down to 5 tonnes a year, which is approx the world average.
This really has changed very quickly indeed in this country.
One flying person business class return to NY is more than the average UK person's emissions for an entire year.
British productivity can basically be reduced to poor incentives for capital investment, and a low-skilled workforce.
Single market membership helped compensate for the latter, somewhat.
By supplying the low-skilled workforce.
Not really. I suspect rather that the net impact was to increased the average skill level.
Nonsense. The UK is a highly educated country which spends billions on education.
Importing people who have skills does increase the average, hence the skills list for immigration including things like Doctors. Importing people who don't but are willing to work for minimum wage does not.
The average EU migrant was better skilled than the average U.K. worker.
Prove me wrong.
If that's the case then why were so many earning minimum wage?
You're making the claim, you prove it.
Migrants from Central and Eastern Europe had more hours of average schooling than the average British native worker.
There’s lots of good stuff here which, by the way, basically undermines pretty much anything you’ve ever posted on this subject.
The government’s report on the economic impact of EEA immigration (2018):
Comments
"It may be just a dribble to you mate, but that’s ecstasy for some lucky lady!"
If he stays Johnson and SAGE can forget ordering an autumn lockdown.
No one will listen to a word they say anymore.
Liars and hypocrites.
Enough.
The BMA are actually a shite bunch of self serving lickspittles, who sell their arses to the government on occasion.
(Does that actually happen or is it just in movies?)
Not security with a capital S
Had a quick look at property prices - £300k just about gets you into something tiny. For anything more substantial its half a million. How the hell do people afford that?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-57608716
I believe she started as an aide in September 2020, and was later appointed as a non-exec to the Health Department’s board.
What was/is the appointments process for either role?
Seems to be working as intended so far and the only ones complaining are those content to use unlimited below market labour are now having to face the consequences of the decisions freely made to end that.
And the people buying in London are being given big mortgages.
That is the recruitment process. No doubt whichever Oxbridge college they went to has excellent undergraduate recruitment processes.
“On Thursday evening after a successful day of saving lives and protecting the NHS, I walked in to my office to see Gina choking on a throat swab from our world beating test and trace kits. I immediately tried to dislodge it with my tongue to save her life…”
- There are considerable incentives to invest in equipment.
- hiring people in general is problematic and risky. Very easy to end up with employees you can't get rid of.
- Outside Paris, using too much* immigrant labour on your building site will result in violence and destruction of your property**
*Yes, I know
**Remember the burning sheep lorries. Like that....
Great craic from Hancock
Single market membership helped compensate for the latter, somewhat.
Re the Spitfire socks - isn't that degrading and shameful to the pilots of the squadrons? (And let's also remember those in the Hurricanes, and Defiants, and so on ...).
The situation in France is that, due to the inflexibility of the labour market, it is cheaper to buy machinery than hire people.
The combination of the closing off of much of the cheap labour sources from COVID (which has had a bigger effect than BREXIT, to date, I think) and the recent tax break on buying equipment has changed this in the UK.
Never mind that. Mr Hands and Space has broken the covid rules.
https://twitter.com/F1/status/1408349773153832960
That should be the one and only public health message now.
I suspect rather that the net impact was to increased the average skill level.
@BenKentish
·
13m
The law that was in place on 6th May says clearly: “No person may participate in a gathering in the Step 2 area which—(a)consists of two or more people, and (b)takes place indoors.” There are lots of exemptions but none that would seem to apply to kissing a colleague.
THIS.
Why are Labour not going for the kill on this????
🤔
He was seen kissing her at the Department of Health’s London HQ during office hours last month as the mutant strain began spreading.
Getting rid of a couple of useless employees of government such as Hancock and Johnson will be child's play
I'm not shore I'm very good at explaining this. but a bit complex to construct a worked example.
The problem is about balance. The system was somewhat in equilibrium. Then essentially unlimited low skill, low cost labour was added to the system. The system found a new equilibrium. The result of that new equilibrium was BREXIT.
I voted Remain and have tried to highlight this issue over many years.
A relative in the building industry tried to get enforcement of standards (including minimum wage) in London. And was told, by an MP under a Labour government, that administrative* policy was to ignore this. He was told the same, later, under the coalition government.
*Meaning the low level policy enacted by the permanent structures of government, rather than a political decision.
His one-hour interview with Anand Menon last night is on YouTube and worth watching.
He smirks a lot when asked about our approach to the Northern Irish Protocol.
Importing people who have skills does increase the average, hence the skills list for immigration including things like Doctors.
Importing people who don't but are willing to work for minimum wage does not.
Prove me wrong.
You're making the claim, you prove it.
Holidays on agenda? Downing Street: “Chancellor Merkel will visit UK on Fri 2nd July. The Prime Minister will host her at Chequers. This will be a chance to discuss a range of issues, including deepening UK-Germany relationship & the global response to the coronavirus pandemic.”
https://twitter.com/Mij_Europe/status/1408356947083026438?s=20
TBF I think the UK has played a very straight bat on this - much to the fury of much of the media and the travel industry.
We've left the Single Market and got a free trade deal. Exactly as he said would happen!!!!
See me after class. I've got plenty of time as I no longer prepare students for the EU Commission language test.
Matt Hancock was the captain of the 'team' you were taking those vaccines for.
He was the captain of the 'team' you all made enormous sacrifices for.
How high up the his agenda was firing and indulging his sexual proclivities, versus 'safety' or any other priority...?
I of course would argue it was top of his agenda.
It wasn't what he was telling you to do, it was the fact he was telling you. It was the enormous power we gave him to affect the lives of ordinary people. He got off on it, and there were powerful forces that surely led him to not wanting to relinquish it.
As for the government not wanting you in lockdown 'a minute' longer than necessary, well, that argument, once an article of faith on here, has been atomised for ever.|
If you aren't annoyed this morning well, you will never be annoyed by anything the powerful do, ever.
The inconsistency of some choosing one form of nationalism as superior to another is bizarre.
My standard question to find if someone is actually serious and thoughtful about the issue is to ask a couple of questions:
1 - What is the EPC value of your house? (band, then number)
2 - How much energy does your house use every year?
A bit of consciousness raising, but also a very common blindspot. The two sectors where we have not heavily decarbonised are transport and residential. And of these, residential is the tough one, as there is a general dislike of investing in our own homes, and far too many demand government subsidies.
The average C02 put out by a house is around 5 tonnes a year. The average carbon footprint for a UK individual is now down to 5 tonnes a year, which is approx the world average.
This really has changed very quickly indeed in this country.
One flying person business class return to NY is more than the average UK person's emissions for an entire year.
That will DEFINITELY cut through!
There’s lots of good stuff here which, by the way, basically undermines pretty much anything you’ve ever posted on this subject.
The government’s report on the economic impact of EEA immigration (2018):
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/741926/Final_EEA_report.PDF
(Similar to your fact-free postings on the housing market).