Over the course of the last week we have been bombarded with numbers, reports, statistics, yet more
numbers and lots and lots of expert reports and considered opinions from our political leaders.
The OBR report came from the summer but is being highlighted again now since it directly relates to
the Chancellors statement and all the numbers being talked about today.
Shrinking workforce, increasing numbers of pensioners, permanent austerity, pension age increased
again, soak the rich, sting the poor, reduce services, things are getting better but.
From our Dear Leader Dave standing next to a golden throne and calling for austerity for ever to our
Dear Chancellor tell us that things are getting better but it’s still going to take pain and suffering
before we get there and in the mean time you must work till you drop.
We need immigrants because our population is aging fast and we are running out of workers to pay
the taxes that support pensions.
No we do not, the UK does not NEED immigrant workers, companies want cheap workers.
But the talking heads say that because of British Labour Laws incoming immigrant workers will be
paid the same as locals, there will be no difference between employing immigrants or British
Citizens.
If that is the case why do I keep hearing and reading reports about UK based Temp agencies having
representatives in Romania. Why if the incoming Romanians will be paid the same as a British worker
and cost as much as a British worker are these companies going to the expense of having people in
Romania signing up workers.
If there is no difference then why are these agents and representatives not standing outside UK
Jobcentres trying to hire people, it’s a lot cheaper to have someone travel across town and stand
outside a Jobcentre handing out leaflets than it is to fly people to Eastern Europe, put them up in hotels,
pay their expenses and then go through the time and effort involved in getting workers from Romania to
the UK.
Given that they will be paid the same and cost the same and be treated the same.
But those agencies smell profit, they know it is all a lie and that they can make good money by bringing
in Romanian workers and undercutting the wages yet again.
Once we have run out of poverty stricken Eastern European nations to exploit for cheap workers, where
then. I expect that in 5-6 years we will be seeing an expansion of the Chinese trade agreements to allow
unrestricted access to the UK job market for Chinese workers.
Then those same agencies can recruit straight out of the rice paddies.
But the talking heads say that we would run out of workers as more people retire and the tax income would
drop.
Rubbish. Lies, more lies.
According to the British Office of National Statistics (yes its more numbers) the UK had the following in the
period Jun-Aug 2013:
Full time students 2,044,000
Long term sick 1,985,000
Looking for work 2,305,000
Not looking for work 6,472,000
The not looking for work numbers include the following:
Students 1,570,000
Long term sick 1,342,000
Other 514,000
Short term Sick 66,000
Lots of people here, millions of people here. All those students who will finish courses and be available for
jobs if there are any jobs to be had. Long term sick, well ATOS are kicking them out into the job market at
the rate of hundreds of thousands a year and the Government say they are fit to work.
Taking several million people out of the workforce due to old age can be covered by using people already
here in the UK who are currently not in the workforce.
Oh and the UK has the fastest growing population in Europe. When you take out immigration you see that
we had 813,000 births in 2012. In 18 years that is going to be 813,000 potential new workers.
We are not running out of young people, we are facing a changing workforce age range and refusing to
adopt our businesses to match it.
In reality the UK can stop immigration today except in very specific skill related cases where people have
skills or abilities not otherwise available in the UK.
The number of jobs that require fit young people to perform have plummeted over the last decade, the
number of jobs that can be performed by older and less physically fit people has expanded
significantly.
The young strong part of our workforce has long since found itself chasing a smaller and smaller number
of jobs while the less physically able have moved on to more technical jobs.
The tax intake would also increase since by cutting the flow of immigrant workers companies would have
no choice but to start paying wage levels that would attrack British workers with mortgages to pay.
More people earning above the liveable wage and paying income tax and less people working at or
below the tax threshold through temp agencies.
Of course this would result in lower profits as they would have to pay all those wages and benefits and
holiday pay and maternity pay and pensions and medical cover that they are legally required to pay but
manage not to through temp agencies and short term contracts.
Still I'm sure the companies would try to find a way round that if they could.
The pension age is being increased again, meaning that people will continue to remain part of the work
force longer.
Given the way that the retirement age has increased over the last few years anyone under 40 now is looking
at a retirement age of 75 or more. Older types may manage to draw a pension at 70 or so.
But then what. We have a million or more “Retired”people who are drawing state pensions but who are
forced to work because they cannot live on the pension alone.
Becoming of pensionable age does not automatically mean you can no longer work and given that the
very nature of work and the work place has changed dramatically in the post industrial age there is
no reason why people in their 70s and 80s cannot continue to fill useful roles as long as they are sound of
mind.
Some will do this because they want to, some because they need to. But either way what Government after
Government and politician after politician fails to see is that we are no longer in the 19thCentury.
Just because we are returning to Dickensian levels of poverty and hunger does not mean we are going to
return to a time when the majority of the workforce was down the mine or up at the mill.
Physical jobs, manual labour jobs, these are a very limited part of the modern employment scene. Tech
jobs, service jobs, creative jobs, use a computer, use a terminal or hand held device, phone services and
office roles.
We have seasonal jobs, industrial or building jobs or some warehouse jobs that require strength, roles that
require lifting heavy loads that are unsuitable for the older workforce.
But are there so many of these jobs that we cannot fill them, my contacts with the unemployed recently
suggest that there are many who have no other skills that are looking for such jobs and not finding them.
So why do we need hundreds of thousands of immigrants to fill such roles when we have British people
looking for just those jobs.
That would be corporate greed.