Current Affairs EU In or Out

[Alan Whittle]

Yes, absolutely shocking. This media/business led campaign have got what they wanted. There are No petrol shortages - if people want to panic and queue for a mile then let them. Anyway the damage has been done.

I drove from Wiltshire to Burton and back today via the A46, the M4, the M42 and the A38. I didn’t see one garage operating normally. By that I mean operating all forecourt pumps at full capacity. No deliveries, no petrol.
Why would business lead a campaign to cause a petrol shortage?
Why have some of the leading petrol retailers shut forecourts? Something they did before people were spooked into queuing. Because there aren’t enough drivers. Certainly the industry has some structural issues but Brexit has temporarily exacerbated them.

 

[gonetomorrow]

Temporary visas are going to lorry drivers and poultry workers prepared to come to blighty and help us up till Turkey Time. Super.

Maybe Angela Merkel could come across and run the country for a bit too.

 

[NilSatisOptimum]

Temporary visas are going to lorry drivers and poultry workers prepared to come to blighty and help us up till Turkey Time. Super.

Maybe Angela Merkel could come across and run the country for a bit too.

Thank Boris you have saved Christmas... Our hero.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

And I wasn't solely putting forward an undercutting narrative - I.e. the brain drain comment.

Loads of their trained medical staff have headed to Austria, for example.

I've no doubt that talented people have left the country. I've also no doubt that talented people will have returned from a spell abroad much wiser for the experience. These are countries for whom emigration was forbidden for 50 years, so it's natural that those with a more liberal and global mindset who suffered for so long under communism would want to experience liberal democracies at the first opportunity. We also have to remember that the likes of Czech, Poland, Estonia et al are all now wealthier per capita than the likes of Spain, towards whom I dare say there are no accusations of Spaniards coming here and providing cheap labour, or that we are bleeding their country dry of talent.

I'm also very conscious that the anti-immigration sentiment from the likes of Armin is not towards Germans, Italians, or Swedes (fellow "global north" countries), but those countries from the A8 and the "global south" who are perceived as being beneath us in terms of their economic and social development and therefore only good for one thing. As the research below illustrates, there is an extremely strong implicit bias against countries of the global south, that they're not capable of the kind of intellectual tasks we're capable of, and are therefore just cheap grunts.

Measuring the bias against low-income country research: an Implicit Association Test - Globalization and Health

Background With an increasing array of innovations and research emerging from low-income countries there is a growing recognition that even high-income countries could learn from these contexts. It is well known that the source of a product influences perception of that product, but little...

globalizationandhealth.biomedcentral.com

 

[Daveysgingerlovechild]

I've no doubt that talented people have left the country. I've also no doubt that talented people will have returned from a spell abroad much wiser for the experience. These are countries for whom emigration was forbidden for 50 years, so it's natural that those with a more liberal and global mindset who suffered for so long under communism would want to experience liberal democracies at the first opportunity. We also have to remember that the likes of Czech, Poland, Estonia et al are all now wealthier per capita than the likes of Spain, towards whom I dare say there are no accusations of Spaniards coming here and providing cheap labour, or that we are bleeding their country dry of talent.

I'm also very conscious that the anti-immigration sentiment from the likes of Armin is not towards Germans, Italians, or Swedes (fellow "global north" countries), but those countries from the A8 and the "global south" who are perceived as being beneath us in terms of their economic and social development and therefore only good for one thing. As the research below illustrates, there is an extremely strong implicit bias against countries of the global south, that they're not capable of the kind of intellectual tasks we're capable of, and are therefore just cheap grunts.

Measuring the bias against low-income country research: an Implicit Association Test - Globalization and Health

Background With an increasing array of innovations and research emerging from low-income countries there is a growing recognition that even high-income countries could learn from these contexts. It is well known that the source of a product influences perception of that product, but little...

globalizationandhealth.biomedcentral.com

OK mate, youve gone full GCRF on me now.

The global south argument has berm around years, you're telling me nowt new fella.

 

[mill]

The thing I don’t get about the cheap labour narrative is that it seems to only apply to a subset of jobs.

We outsource a lot of our labour in loads of different ways. Where are the majority of electronics goods manufactured? They are outsourced to markets where labour is cheap. It’s brought the cost of goods down so now everyone has a flat screen tv.

It’s comparative advantage and it’s economics 101. It’s why gain from trade and respective comparative advantage are beneficial. And why tariffs or quotas or barriers to trade tend to mean a smaller pot overall. Short term protectionism might be beneficial to an economy but it simply doesn’t work in the long term once business have the ability to adjust. It means higher prices and job losses in the long term.

 

[Prevenger17]

Thank Boris you have saved Christmas... Our hero.

Brexit working out just as planned

 

[NilSatisOptimum]

Brexit working out just as planned

Temporary visas are going to lorry drivers and poultry workers prepared to come to blighty and help us up till Turkey Time. Super.

Maybe Angela Merkel could come across and run the country for a bit too.

Which expire on Christmas eve... Last Christmas we kept thousands of those foreign lorry drivers hauled up on air field' and fed them crisps for Christmas dinner. Bet they can't wait to come back. That's Britishness.

 

[Amw79]

“Deliver our turkeys, and then F off”

What a country.

 

[tsubaki]

The thing I don’t get about the cheap labour narrative is that it seems to only apply to a subset of jobs.

We outsource a lot of our labour in loads of different ways. Where are the majority of electronics goods manufactured? They are outsourced to markets where labour is cheap. It’s brought the cost of goods down so now everyone has a flat screen tv.

It’s comparative advantage and it’s economics 101. It’s why gain from trade and respective comparative advantage are beneficial. And why tariffs or quotas or barriers to trade tend to mean a smaller pot overall. Short term protectionism might be beneficial to an economy but it simply doesn’t work in the long term once business have the ability to adjust. It means higher prices and job losses in the long term.

TBF I am not sure labour costs are responsible for cheap stuff - a mix of technological advances and a switch to a disposable culture are more responsible.

Also this notion of competitiveness in terms of wages only ever seems to apply to the working classes - you’d think given the serial failures of management (especially British management, who bear the lion’s share of the blame for the state of British manufacturing) over the past fifty years that they’d have paid a price but all evidence in terms of executive pay tells another story.

 

[NilSatisOptimum]

The thing I don’t get about the cheap labour narrative is that it seems to only apply to a subset of jobs.

We outsource a lot of our labour in loads of different ways. Where are the majority of electronics goods manufactured? They are outsourced to markets where labour is cheap. It’s brought the cost of goods down so now everyone has a flat screen tv.

It’s comparative advantage and it’s economics 101. It’s why gain from trade and respective comparative advantage are beneficial. And why tariffs or quotas or barriers to trade tend to mean a smaller pot overall. Short term protectionism might be beneficial to an economy but it simply doesn’t work in the long term once business have the ability to adjust. It means higher prices and job losses in the long term.

The HGV industry has treated its workers whomever they are like crap and paid rubbish wages.

A truly awful Industry. Even now Tescos say “ Despite paying inflated wages etc” people want to ignore low wage issue.

The industry is the conductor of its own downfall and, where our Goverment has decided to let this industry line its pockets with its free market principle at the expense of worker wages and conditions. We can only now hope that Brexit might precursor to make things better for those in the supply chain and the wider workforce.

We can see one benefit which is that Tesco is now having to pay a fair wage even though they consider it inflated which says it all really... (Poor shareholders)

 

[Alan Whittle]

The HGV industry has treated its workers whomever they are like crap and paid rubbish wages.

A truly awful Industry. Even now Tescos say “ Despite paying inflated wages etc” people want to ignore low wage issue.

The industry is the conductor of its own downfall and, where our Goverment has decided to let this industry line its pockets with its free market principle at the expense of worker wages and conditions. We can only now hope that Brexit might precursor to make things better for those in the supply chain and the wider workforce.

We can see one benefit which is that Tesco is now having to pay a fair wage even though they consider it inflated which says it all really... (Poor shareholders)

The Tories, presenting themselves as the champions of the under paid. What a time to be alive.

 

[Bohemian Toffee]

The Tories, presenting themselves as the champions of the under paid. What a time to be alive.

And people falling for it. There are no depths they won't sink to and no lie their voters won't forgive them for.

 

[gonetomorrow]

“Deliver our turkeys, and then F off”

What a country.

Get on the plane you turkey pluckers. Don't you have Christmas in Warsaw?

 

[NilSatisOptimum]

The Tories, presenting themselves as the champions of the under paid. What a time to be alive.

I've done it now I'm born again Tory, however, they have said and done nothing since 2016 to avert this situation, neither by pressure on industry on wage or working conditions by said Government.
Apart erode safety measures. Great!