If Sir Kier is going to bang 20000 more people up, then he gets my vote
The bit that caught my eye in your (insightful) post was the payment of fair wages. This resonates throughout the food chain - from collecting it to cooking it to serving it and of course the other end the consumers that facilitate this. Even more broadly, food chain can be applied to any industry - from building to decorating to health.
View to get in front of this is the issue.
Rory Stewart , one of the more thoughtful (and principled) Tory members of Parliament in recent years , lifts the lid on the whole stinking charade.
Thatâs a good article tbf. Wonder why he doesnât join another party
I wonder if he is suggesting that the problem, âof short termânessâ, is too widespread
Probably because there isnât another one that matches his core principles. I suspect this is why there is still a core residual support for the Conservative Party. There isnât another party that matches their socially and economic conservative viewpoint (even if the Tory Party doesnât either now).
I think the book would probably be well worth a read.
Edit: Iâll let you all know. I just ordered it.
Fair play. He is one Conservative I would and do listen to. There arenât many others, I certainly cant think of any that are sitting conservative mpâs at the moment
There has to be more of his ilk , surely. But youâd be hard pressed (or at least I would) to name many one nation Tories who hold any kind of sway in todayâs party. Itâs going to be interesting to see which way the herd turns after their election defeat ; are they really going to continue down the road of far right populism or will a rump see sense and gravitate back towards the centre.
Almost tempted by this myself, expect Dishy Rishy to propose the re-introduction of the axe very soon. Or the bolt gun, quicker.
and because of just how rough and humiliating X and Facebook can be.
More on immigration below
From the article,
" The report says the growing population has masked the UKâs âatrociousâ record on productivity (output per worker) which grew by just 0.6% a year in the 2010s. "
So my immediate question to that finding is, âwhy?â. Itâs across all industries, private and public so why are we so shit. I dont buy the Tory lazy trope.
Presumably, something happened in 2010 that has stifled the economy and investment since.
Actually what is the current issue with immigration for UK? Uncontrolled immigration both in and out? Too little immigration in? Or unable to attract the right migrants?
If anything, we need more immigrants.
However, the culture wars stoked by the right have meant that immigrants get the blame for all the problems currently affecting the country, when the truth is that the sad state of affairs is almost entirely due to the neoliberal ideology that has run the western world for the last 45 or so years.
You would think a Labour Party thatâs likely to form the next government would be making reform, i.e. replacing with an elected chamber, of the HoL a priority. I canât understand why they arenât.
As said above, itâs not popular with a lot of voters and opens the question as to what you replace it with. It would become very messy to handle and given all the problems an incoming government is going to be faced with, it really needs to cut down on distractions so that it can focus on getting the really urgent stuff done.
Well, we could start here:
Reality or perception?
The UK has an uneven demographics whereby there are more older people (the Baby Boomer generation) and an ongoing low birth rate - this is now down as low as 1.5 births per woman which is far below the replacement fertility rate is at 2.1. There are various factors that have influenced this over the years but the main one is that young people cannot afford to have more children.
The effect of this is there are now more economically inactive people (the Boomer generation that are aged over 60) and fewer replacing them in the workplace (Gen Z). Particularly there is a shortage of people in relatively low paid work such as the food sector, health and socal care, manufacturing and construction.
Prior to Brexit it was easy to fill this roles with mobile young people from Europe, who were happy enough perform that work, improve their English language skills, and move on to bigger and better things. Now that supply of labour has dried up, and the immigration policy is specifying a minimum income requirement that prevents that type of temporary migration.
In addition, the education sector is in dire straits and the higher education sector are encouraging huge numbers of overseas students to study in the UK as they get far higher fees from them. This does cause housing pressure on places with high student to resident ratios.
In terms of perception, there is generally opposition to immigration in the UK (apart from Scotland, where depopulation is more recognised as an ongoing problem). Much of this is played upon by right wing grifters but I would say that you do find an inherent resistance to newcomers, particularly outside of big cities.