There are plenty of stories about a lack of recruits for hospitality and travel businesses reopening after lockdown, a shortage of truck and van drivers, and even shortages of people to run various types of factory. Meanwhile there are still a substantial number of people on furlough, where we need soon to find out if their jobs are safe and about to be restored or not.If some are not going to be welcomed back into full time employment now would be a good time to have that conversation so they can start to find an alternative amidst all the vacancies or set about the training needed to get into one of the scarcity activities.
Some in business want to blame Brexit for a shortage of people coming from the continent to get jobs here, a model many businesses relied on. The government has had to reveal that instead of there being around 3 to 4 million EU citizens working here as they used to tell us, there are at least 6 million now as they have applied for settled status under the new scheme. Another part of the government has also wondered aloud if there are over 1 million people in the UK from various parts of the world who are not being vaccinated for fear of it triggering an enquiry into their migration status, as they are not registered with GPs. All this implies there are a good number of people from abroad in jobs, and of course the new immigration system allows people to recruit from abroad in specified scarcity areas and for higher skilled higher paid people.
I have raised with the government the need to expand driver training and testing as they say they are now doing, given the big expansion in home deliveries across the pandemic. Wages at the bottom end are picking up a bit to send a clear signal to people already resident here that they are needed in various scarcity occupations. This should also stimulate the application of more machine and computer power to business activities to raise productivity to allow higher wages and fewer employees per unit of output. There has also in the last year or so been a welcome expansion in the numbers of people setting up new businesses or working for themselves, greatly increasing flexibility and innovation in our economy.
185 Comments
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July 19, 2021
So what we have been banging on about for years, Government lying, losing control of immigration, now five million plus one million âillegalsâ who are supposed to be returned. Yes real action needed re jobs market, how many people furloughed unnecessarily, refusing because of benefit comfort blanket? In view of number from EU being reassessed more must be resisted. Companies must now put some effort into their recruitment rather than expecting people to âwalk through the doorâ
And in other new quite apparent Johnson was âlyingâ yesterday (again?) when he said he only considered the pilot programme for a brief time. Bolleaux, he thought the rules didnât apply to him and he could get away with it.
And more dissembling and inefficiency, a massive government testing centre is only working to 10% capacity because of multiple failures, one of the reasons âdouble jabbedâ freedoms have been pushed back to the middle of august. An expert from an independent testing laboratory offered his expertise to be rebuffed.
Arrogant NHS again, preferring to make us suffer rather than admit mistakes?
July 19, 2021
Nig1, The reason so many migrants want to come here – apart from escaping the EU – is because of the welfare handouts. The only remedy is no handouts unless the immigrant has 15 years of National Insurance Contributions whilst working.
July 19, 2021
There isnât a single benefit given in the Middle East, Far East, Russia nor South AmericaâŠ.maybe thatâs why the economic refugees arenât rushing to claim asylum there
July 20, 2021
Illegal immigrants are not entitled to benefits, Nick.
You need to consider the different approaches of the sovereign countries of the European Union. It has NO immigration policy.
Why do some of them – a minority – want the UK rather than France, say, then?
Well, perhaps in some cases it’s because of this.
France has a ban on certain religious garments, unlike the UK.
France restricts most arranged marriages, unlike the UK.
France takes effective action against F G M unlike the UK.
France does not fund religious schools, unlike the UK.
France requires ID cards and regulates the cash economy closely, unlike the UK.
France does not allow religious activity on public property, unlike the UK.
France does not have a pre-existing, largely separate, English-speaking, cash economy among three million Islamic people unlike the UK.
France has historically stressed integration above multi-culturalism unlike the UK.
France denies citizenship to those who do not expressly and solemnly state their allegiance to the letter of its written constitution unlike the UK.
If not for that, then maybe some would not try to come here.
Voting Leave changed nothing though, did it?
Why ever would it?
The European Union is exclusively for secular countries.
July 20, 2021
Lots of paragraphs there MiC
Just one point:-
Illegal immigrants do get welfare benefits.
Look it up on the internet.
Try .gov and asylum support.
I think it is fair in a decent society to help people in need so don’t go responding with your usual stuff.
July 20, 2021
Asylum claimants are not illegal.
July 20, 2021
Pedantic definitions by you MiC
You and I know everyone arriving claims asylum.
July 20, 2021
They do if they’re discovered. That’s plan B.
July 20, 2021
According to news.sky.com (âAsylum seekers: Why they come to UK and Franceâ) there were not that many differences between the UK and France in terms of benefits. However this was an old comparison (2014). In those days, it was only in âChances of stayingâ that the UK was more generous than France: in 2014, 4,015 out of 12,750 got the right to stay in the UK (31.49%), for France it was 5,825 out of 37,085 (15.71%).
In 2020, France has delivered 712,311 visas (including refugees, economic migrants, family reunions, students) (vie-publique.fr âImmigration: premiers chiffres pour 2020â, 21/01/2021). Actual distribution between the different categories is easily available.
I am sorry but I could not find the equivalent Home Office figures. According to UNHCR some 133,094 have come to the UK in 2020 as asylum seekers ( unhcr.org âAsylum in the UKâ). About 60% of those were recognised as refugees.
As for other categories, it appears necessary to work with numbers from different associations/charities.
Are the MPs unable to get proper reliable numbers from the Home Office, specially given the emphasis that the Home Secretary appears to put on that question?
July 20, 2021
Very interesting hef.
But you miss the point.
I was not suggesting people come here for benefits.
Just respondonding to MiC who claimed they got nothing.
July 21, 2021
I was precise about who “they” are though.
As far as some commenters are concerned everyone who arrives here is “illegal”.
They are wrong. Many have a right to claim asylum, so are not here illegally until their claim is dismissed.
As such they are entitled to basic support under UN rules – the same for all signatory countries.
July 21, 2021
You had to be pedantically precise to try to say something that wasn’t actually correct.
You said they get nothing.
They claim asylum on entry.
Their claim and its appeal process can take years.
They get welfare.
It is stated plainly on the .Gov site.
July 19, 2021
But I’m guessing that the government is still OK for 50% of our children to go on to further education, to study for degrees of no great value, to be indoctrinated by leftists, and to acquire massive debts. That needs to stop.
P.S. Pleasing to see you pushing for an expansion of driver training. Perhaps the state should subsidise it – or even make it available for free for ex-servicemen and some categories of prisoners. This isn’t a difficult problem to solve.
July 19, 2021
Indeed putting our youth into ÂŁ50k 0f debt plus 6% interest PA, plus loss of earning for three years (or more) for degrees (at least 75% of which are surely worth less than ÂŁ10,000 at best) is surely insanity on stilts. The median entry qualification is about 2Ds so about 75% have not even understood their A levels.
More insanity from âwar on a blatant lieâ Blair this on top of his appalling botched devolution, his many EU errors and his all will have largely worthless degrees and large debt policy.
July 19, 2021
+1
July 19, 2021
We’ve had the Tories for eleven years now, and you’re still going on about Blair’s being misled by “high confidence intelligence” from the US about Iraq.
Yes, it was a world-changing disaster, but let’s not forget that it was Bush’s war first and foremost.
July 19, 2021
freelance drivers dont want to work due to IR35. any amount of training is not going to fix that.
July 19, 2021
+1
July 19, 2021
Sea-Warrior perhaps the State should offer them Training Tuition fee loans with a 9% tax rate on the equivalence of a degree program for essential skill training over the lel of plan 1 students.
July 19, 2021
78% of all student loans, mostly worthless degrees will not be paid back and written off by the taxpayer. The only ones who will repay their loans plus the punitive 6% interest which starts to accrue the minute they take out the loan are doctors, scientists etc. the very people the country needs and should therefore not be burdened with this massive debt.
July 19, 2021
And they get hit with this SuperTax before they even qualify for a mortgage.
July 19, 2021
True but even doctor will often fail to repay. They after 5 or 6 years can have debts of ÂŁ250K 6% interest on that is ÂŁ15K PA starting salaries for junior doctors in the NHS can be just ÂŁ25k and that is before tax and NI. Female doctors (who are far more likely to work part time and/or take career breaks) are even more likely never to repay. About 50% of doctors do not go on to work for the NHS as so many find it poor offer and poor employer. Rather a waste of the long and expensive training.
July 19, 2021
IR35 has killed appetite of many people to do some roles, paying for your own work expenses out of taxed income is going down like cold sick. Indeed the impact is not fully realised as many are still working at home, and the full impact of them being expected to pay for hotels etc out of taxed money is yet to hit.
We have continued to print intra company transfer visas like confetti, and allowed the outsourcers to continue to flood the market with cheap international workers, given them big tax perks to undercut local workers, all through the pandemic they have been coming in every day by the plane load.
We continue to keep people in social housing located well away from travelling distance to any realistic jobs market. Social housing has not adapted to the change in the centres of employment. This is madness.
The political class are truly making a mess of things.
July 19, 2021
They are indeed and have been doing so for all of my life so far & certainly since Ted Heath. We have the highest tax rates for 70 years and you often cannot even deduct you costs of working, commuting, landlordâs interest and other work expenses. Then you get your pension pot mugged with the 55% lifetime limit tax, though not if you are a youngish ex commons speaker it seems.
July 19, 2021
+1
July 19, 2021
“The Tories are making a mess of things”.
There – fixed.
July 19, 2021
Brexit was not the main cause of the million man exodus from the UK which took place largely in the early part of 2020. It may be a cause of reduced immigration in the future which, according to Brexit’s shameless propogandists, would mean higher wages cheaper houses , and a Doctor hurtling to your side at the sound of a sniff. None of these things will happen, of course but then Brexit was never about reality .
More working people does not create unemployment of reduced demand for employment, they do create growth. Growth is vital for a country 100 % of GDP in debt and a contraction from trend, will have an immediate affect on the UK`s fiscal position.
This will put the Government under pressure to relax controls on inward migration from India , for example, which will certainly want access as part of any enhanced trading arrangement . Do you trust Boris Johnson to resist temptation….or are you an adult ?
Anyone who thinks this Government will not to open the flood gates to global immigration should consider the real reason they are letting the building industry rip out the rural heart of the South.
They need the money !!
July 19, 2021
They need the money ? Well here they’ve let rip on house building while managing to cut services. We were told the housing was for young people but there was a lot of it and the character of the area has certainly changed to something more menacing. It is clear that the incomers aren’t paying council tax … or if they are then someone is pocketing it. It is doubtful they are paying income tax either.
July 19, 2021
Newmania, Even Lord Stuart Rose – chairman of your Remain campaign – admitted to MPs on the Treasury Select Committee, that if the UK left the EU and its Free Movement regime, and began restricting bossesâ access to cheap foreign labour, wages would go up.
July 19, 2021
I think the point he is making is that immigration leads to population expansion, a larger internal market and therefore growth.
America is obviously the prime example of this. The largest economy of the world and built entirely on the back or (largely poor) immigrants striving for success.
July 19, 2021
Yes but considering that all the needless devastation was created on purpose, why the hand wringing?
This is what all the MPs wanted or they would have done something to save the country.
We have a shattered economy, an overcrowded country, a teetering welfare system and increasing mental health problems. Not to mention inflation steaming down the road!
Yet the government pretends it will/can do something to rectify the mess it has created at the behest of foreign powers ( or whoever).
We are screwed!
July 19, 2021
How can we be short of imported workers when 6 million have applied to stay.
20% of Romanian citizens are reportedly living in the UK.
Are they all on furlough and drawing government salaries whilst living in their home country.
It’s getting tiresome listening to various sectors bleating bout shortage of staff when we have over a million on furlough and another million plus drawing dole.
July 19, 2021
Agree completely. We were saying that here this morning. Millions more people than the govt. had reckoned on I think? Naturally.
I did wonder if the âshortageâ of drivers will be used in possibly the next project fearâŠdisruption of food supply? There are murmurings in that direction.
Ages ago I was told by a local postmaster that one âpositiveâ test and the whole shebang gets sent home. I couldnât believe it!
July 19, 2021
Stop being so silly Ian. 20% of the Romanian population would be around 4 million.
July 19, 2021
so how do we PROVE there are not 4m living/working here?
July 20, 2021
Does it seem to you that one in fifteen people are Romanian?
July 20, 2021
Because according to the settled and pre-settled statistics there were 918,270 Romanians who had applied by end of March 2021 and I doubt very much that more than 3 m would have applied by end of June (gov.uk âEU Settlement Scheme quarterly report, March 2021).
Total population of Romania is less than 20 m.
July 20, 2021
IW, population of Romania January 2021: 19,104,771 according to worldometers.info
Number of Romanians with settled or pre-settled status gov.uk âEU settlement scheme, quarterly statistics, March 2021: 918,770
918,770/19,104,771 = 0.048 ie 4.8% and Bob is your uncle and Ian is an âŠ
July 20, 2021
What hef…. Ian is an….?
Go on spit it out.
You know you want to.
July 20, 2021
Look for it, Dogberry: Bill Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing, Act 4, scene 2.
July 21, 2021
You old intellectual you, heffy.
What a teaser you are.
July 21, 2021
Teaser, maybe, and it works, you are the living proof.
July 19, 2021
And London has lost everything that made it a global attraction because of its Mayor and the pandemic and the failure to take advantage of the vaccine and get us out of lockdown.
I don’t know why we bother having politicians any more. Just let the scientists and civil ‘servants’ run it all.
July 20, 2021
It has lost the main thing, which was being the capital city of one of the Big Three countries of the European Union, certainly.
July 20, 2021
That is still happening because geographically London still is one of the three big European cities.
But you have defined as one of three of the EU.
July 19, 2021
As I said yesterday, I suspect that Test and Trace is removing many people from productive work unnecessarily. Remember, vaccination does not eliminate Covid it merely gives the fully vaccinated a level of protection from it’s nastier symptoms.
Ref driver shortages, what is the level of a return to work at the DVLA, and of the driver training industry. My feeling is that now we have such a large percentage of the population double vaccinated we should learn to live with Covid, for sure it is not going to go away.
July 19, 2021
@agricola; Except 10% of those double vaccinated who, according to the published stats, go on to catch CV19 will have a moderate to serious infection, 5% may will have a severe infection leading hospitalisation -true they’ll probably no longer die. The problem being, 10% of ~40m adults is still a lot of people, and the more wide spread any wave of infection becomes the less likely the NHS/private health care systems will cope, in turn this means many people who are off work or on restricted duties due to non CV19 conditions are not having treatments that will allow their return to work
We do indeed need to learn to live with Covid, we need to learn to adapt, not ‘Carry on Regardless’, celebrating a fake “Freedumb Day” by packing into clubs and pubs at the stroke of midnight, demanding our right to travel on public transport or go shopping sans any mask and hand hygiene protocols., refusing to respect others personal space. We need to live with the virus, not in spite of it, as far as employment that might well mean moving away from lean employment practises, along with robust and secure policies when it comes to the need to report sickness from home -an end to the “Flu Martyrdom” idiocy.
July 19, 2021
Jerry, you’re pulling percentages out of thin air as usual. Why not look at the actual figures reported by NHS trusts up and down the country? Only a tiny, tiny, fraction of people are said to be in hospital ‘with’ Covid 19. For example, Mid and South Essex NHS Trust’s most recent figure, last week, was 34 patients in hospital ‘with’ Covid. The Trust says it serves 1.2 million people. Please look up the equivalent figures for your NHS trust area, and maybe tell us what you found?
July 19, 2021
@Richard II; The issues is not how many are currently in hospital, it is about how many will be in hospital in 4, 5, 8, 12 weeks time. The stats I mentioned came from one of the vaccines manufactures, the fact that some peoples immune systems do not produce the needed antibodies from the vaccine(s).
July 19, 2021
+1
July 19, 2021
It absolutely is!
Exactly as it was always meant to. Chaos is what they want.
One person sneezes, tests positive ( with an unnecessarily humiliating and dangerous test which just roots out old, dead bits of virus from the last cold) and everyone at work/in the class is âpingedâ and quarantined. Especially when the swab is dipped in orange juice = âpositiveâ result.
That is what happened/keeps happening at Royal Mail, meat factoriesâŠeverywhere!
I imagine it would happen with lorry drivers too. Donât sneeze or cough in the depot!
Almost DIDNâT happen with cabinet members and PMâŠjust shows how scared they actually are of the mysterious variants. Like not in the least!
July 19, 2021
I think itâs time to go back to plan A which is to aim for herd immunity. Natural immunity is far superior to the vaccine as it provides T-cell protection. As long as the hospitals arenât being overwhelmed and most people only have mild symptoms, we need to stop all this enforced quarantine of healthy people who are getting pinged by the NHS app.
Interesting stats coming out of India. At the peak of their epidemic, they issued Ivermectin to people across the country. We can now see nearly 100% recovery rates. Of course, the media wonât tell people this as they only seem to want to report bad news. What has happened to the UK study into this drug?
July 19, 2021
But Christine, this would mean putting the ‘experts’ out to grass, and who would ever employ them again??!!
As you say, ‘we can now see nearly 100% recovery rates’ in India, using a cheap and effective drug. Except – we can’t see, most of us, because we don’t know where to look.
I’d add another item to your to-do list:- the urgent need to lift Ofcom’s requirement for the media to toe the government line on the Covid crisis, imposed in March 2020, when the situation was very different.
July 19, 2021
+1
July 19, 2021
It seems to me that Test and Trace has now gone over the top. If you have been double immunised and get notified, you should be able to get a PCR test and, if negative, be able to carry on as normal.
July 19, 2021
Mockbegger
The Perfect and so bloody obvious solution given the circumstances.
I posted the same yesterday only included a lateral flow test first (only because it can be done at home with a home test kit)
July 19, 2021
My friend works in an NHS office and all staff have been told not to have the track and trace app on their phone.
July 19, 2021
It certainly is not going to go away, with the attitude of this what-passes-for-a-government and of their voters, no.
July 19, 2021
Martin, Covid could only be held at bay if we had shut down our borders – like I suggested back in February 2020. But which you and Andy decried as “xenophobic”.
July 20, 2021
No, I was entirely in favour of strict border measures and highly critical of the government’s egregious lack of action.
July 19, 2021
Keep on insulting those who don’t currently vote Labour MiC
Please don’t stop to consider you are revealing your dislike of the very voters you need to switch in order to get Labour elected.
July 19, 2021
So we are short of skills and training is needed.
You’re a mug if you train your staff. All you do is empower them to go elsewhere to companies that prefer to buy in talent rather than invest in training themselves. So nobody trains, they rely on bought in skills and then complain of a skills shortage. This is what has happened to give us a lorry driver shortage.
What is needed is for businesses to invest in training and take the whole amount invested straight off their tax bill.
It would also be helpful if schools taught children the life skills they need for their livelihood.
July 19, 2021
I think that’s a really interesting idea and your observation on why Company`s don`t train is certainly one I have also experienced . Its a typical short termist example of market failure and there is a good case for incentivising the creation of value.
July 19, 2021
No, businesses not training (from scratch) is not a “market failure”, Newmania. Most new starters require some training, and get it. The market works just fine. By definition. If you want a different outcome – say 5 year apprenticeships – then the state must make the rules and pay for it out of taxes (or penalise the non-compliant; or get the apprentice to pay).
July 19, 2021
youre a mug if you hire a British worker when you can get someone on a work visa and not have to pay national insurance, either employers or employees, for their first 12 months.
July 19, 2021
Sadly you’re Spot On
July 20, 2021
sad isnt it
July 20, 2021
Iain, donât you need some kind of a sponsor scheme to continue âattractingâ EU people to work in the UK, and to pay them at least ÂŁ20k? Or 25k? How have these requirements changed after 01/01/2021?
July 19, 2021
Dave
Agree, I have known many organisations who have attempted to train new recruits only for them to go off on their own as soon as they think they are skilled enough (invariably they are not) so we actually get a dumbing down of learned skills in the labour market.
It costs much more time and money to train and mentor skilled staff than people imagine, if you are going to do the job properly and comprehensively
Whilst I can well understand those in training thinking they are being used as cheap labour, a proper apprenticeship gives you a wide spread of skills and knowledge both practical and academic, which can be applied for use in the whole of a working life, within many industry forms.
Certainly the government for decades has ignored the need for skilled practical training (scrapping of tech college’s and day release type training ) in favour of expensive academic only qualifications, many of which are of little actual value in the real world.
July 19, 2021
More often than not HGV licences and training are funded by the drivers themselves.
The difficult bit isn’t the HGV training (which I did in the early ’90s) but routes, learning how to load and lash, tacho regs and very tight manoeuvers, none of which are included in the basic course.
Driving a lorry is a very difficult and stressful job. Especially around cities.
July 19, 2021
“Employment” means a vast range of things, and there may be dire shortages in some sections – e.g. lorry drivers and harvesters – but idleness in others, e.g.among seafood export workers.
Each causes distress to those adversely affected, and since a large part of this has been caused by brexit, it is clear that the sum total of happiness in these isles has been significantly diminished by it.
Those who campaigned for Leave owe us all an apology therefore, I think.
July 19, 2021
Indeed Martin. Notice it is mostly retired people on here who are very happy to disrupt the lives and livelihoods of everybody else. They never understood how the modern world worked and why it worked that way.
The first saving grace is that most of the Brexitists in Parliament who sold this turkey will be losing their jobs soon anyway. The second is that lots of them will end up behind bars.
July 19, 2021
Morally they deserve the heaviest penalties possible, but as far as I can see the law – to its shame – does not provide for that, Andy.
Given their fixation with immigration, however, I take it that they will commend Australia – as ever – on their good sense re their latest expulsion?
July 19, 2021
Morally, independence patriots deserve the highest honours our country can bestow, Martin. It would be a topsy-turvy world indeed where traitors are lauded.
July 19, 2021
Up pops Andy – right on cue.
The Peter Pan of this site. Destined to never get old.
July 19, 2021
Notice it is you Andy who wants to disrupt lives and livelihoods by forcing us back under EU empire subservience. Fortunately you lost. And the modern world does not work the way the EU does anyway.
Is your prediction about Independence supporters losing their jobs and ending up behind bars on the same level as all your other predictions? Like predicting we’ll get the electricity to heat our homes from using EU kettles and toasters?
July 19, 2021
The modern world IS largely the European Union.
It is you Leavers who want to drag this country back to some imagined past, and somehow believe that if you could then it would take the rest of the world with it.
Reality has quite different ideas.
July 19, 2021
Is it MiC?
Have you any proof of that remarkable claim.
So not China India Australia South Korea Japan UK Singapore Hong Kong et al.
The modern world eh.
Hilariius
July 20, 2021
The modern world is just what it is – that, all of it.
And the European Union is a vastly larger part of it than little Tory England is.
July 20, 2021
So no proof just more wild assertions.
July 19, 2021
I am so sorry for your continued angst. However the total happiness which has lost on your side of the balance sheet, has gained massively from those you ignore even when tweaking the curtains. Literally the balance has shown a profit.
July 19, 2021
No! We need a one way door -outward.
July 19, 2021
More fantasy thoughts from you MiC
Any actual data for your wild assertions?
EG
“the sum total of happiness has been diminished”….by brexit
Where are bill and heffy when you need them?
July 19, 2021
“The initial pandemic shock saw millions of individuals suffer both financially and with their well-being. This continues to be felt more than a year on, with similar amounts of people needing to borrow or use savings to make ends meet as seen last year. Worryingly, the self-employed, parents, young people and those living on the lowest household incomes remain more negatively affected by the pandemic in April 2021.”
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/wellbeing/bulletins/personalandeconomicwellbeingintheuk/may2021
PS. The “Bonkers Brits” expression, I estimate is now circulating within the EU, in all twenty-four official languages.
July 19, 2021
Acorn, “Suffering” because of covid19? Or because of the untargeted national lockdowns (UNLs)? There is no sound correlation between the harshness of the UNLs and covid outcomes. But those UNLs have resulted in: impoverishment; damaged national economies; diseases other than covid not treated; shortened lives; and extra deaths. I suspect more have been affected by the UNLs than by covid.
July 20, 2021
Acorn
You quote doesnt even get close to supporting MiCs claim.
July 20, 2021
Funny comment, P2. Isnât anybody free to post here (provided Sir John accepts it obviously)? Does one have to belong to a coterie, to be a supporter of X or Y? Is your world only made of two camps, those who agree with you and those with whom you disagree? I know that a minority here on this blog appears to suffer from this confirmation bias, seeing contributors as all good or all bad. But come on P2, I thought better of you.
July 20, 2021
Glad you found it funny hef
Always glad to get you out of your perpetual grumpy mood.
Although not entirely it would seem.
July 19, 2021
Erm.. it was the Remainers who were put in charge after the vote who worked tirelessly to keep us in the EU and did nothing to prepare us for exit that has caused this. We had four years to train up drivers but preferred to send them on soft courses at university, give them ‘apprenticeships’ in making coffee or leave them on the dole.
For five years people on this site were asking what the hell was going on. And the Boris win delivered the shock of Remainers’ lives… they had been wrong… we WERE leaving the EU after all.
July 19, 2021
I knew that the UK was leaving the moment that the 2015 GE result was announced.
The UK had an ÂŁ11 billion-a-year publicity industry devoted to making sure that it did.
No shock here, sunbeam.
July 19, 2021
That’s not what you were saying before Boris Johnson displaced Theresa May and the Remains were soundly trounced in the December 2019 general election, Martin.
July 19, 2021
Sunbeam…another non PC comment from you MiC
July 19, 2021
You were in the know, and still didn’t cross the channel? No not Tiger Bay – the one leading to your Valhalla.
July 19, 2021
We have placed high barriers between our economy and those of neighbouring states. Brexit has badly harmed our product and services markets, and also our labour market. To think the Conservatives were once the party of free trade! No longer
Reply The govt agreed a free trade agreement which the EU seeks to subvert
July 19, 2021
Give it up JR! The only people subverting the Withdrawal Agreement (WA) is you and the rest of the ERG 62. Sacrificing Britain for a dwindling band of, so called unionists, is doing nobody any favours. Implement the Northern Ireland protocol to the letter; then, negotiate changes with the mechanisms within the Treaty that is the WA.
July 19, 2021
No, Grey, the high barriers are fortress EU empire barriers. UK exports to the entire EU amount to only about 10% of UK GDP. The other nearly 90% is freed from EU controls. Which is more important 90% or 10%?
July 19, 2021
The blood/brain barrier appears to be no more. Write to your politicians to ask them for their view on this – on second thoughts, don’t bother.
July 19, 2021
There are around 12m pensioners in the U.K. – who get hundreds of pounds each month in taxpayer handouts for doing nothing at all.
Letâs get them picking fruit, delivering things and so on. Half my taxes go on pensions, social care, extra health services and perks for the elderly. It is a ludicrous waste of vast sums of my money. Get them working.
July 19, 2021
A lot of pensioners do work andy.
They like to keep active and cannot survive on the meagre State pension.
When we do work, grumblers like you say we should retire and make way for young people in need of employment.
Forgetting that these experienced people have skills they can pass down to you youngsters.
Can your generation decide what they want us to do.
July 19, 2021
Many Pensioners pay hundreds/ thousands of pounds in tax. I know, because I do.
I donât recall I get any âhandoutsâ just demands for Income and Council Tax.
I left school at 15, and went into full time work. No Uni for me. However, I look forward to getting the âperksâ you speak of. They cant come soon enough.
July 19, 2021
Andy, Pensioners have paid NICs all their working lives. It’s a contract in law. On the other hand young people below the age of 18 years (and c50% below 21 years) are subsidised, and for much longer than pensioners are paid earned state pension (18/21 years vs 15 years pension).
July 19, 2021
You are literally repeating yourself.
July 19, 2021
Andy, I can understand that you dislike pensioners because you believe they voted for Brexit and consequently they should be kept working to earn their pensions.
But just have a think about it.
There ARE many people who work well past retirement age in politics, in the law/judiciary, in education, in the MSM, in businesses etc..
Whilst some pensioners could be forced to âpick fruit and deliver thingsâ Iâm not sure there are sufficient such jobs. And do you really want pensioners to work in the emergency services or fixing the water or gas leak in your road or operating on your hernia ?
Finally, many believe that older people hanging onto jobs is grossly unfair to younger generations by not only taking their jobs/preventing their promotion but also being a hindrance to new ideas and efficient working practices.
July 19, 2021
“at least 6 million [..//..] have applied for [EU] settled status”
Not sure what relevance the numbers of EU settled status claimants have when talking about job vacancies, the scheme is for all ages, from children to pensioners for who the UK is their permanent home, how many are of (suitable) working age for the jobss that currently can not be filled, age and lack of qualifications must surely rule many out from applying.
“[some people] are not being vaccinated for fear of it triggering an enquiry into their migration status, as they are not registered with GPs. All this implies there are a good number of people from abroad in jobs”
A contradiction surely, unless our host means plenty of black market illegal employment! Surely those legitimately employed will have the correct immigration papers, be registered with HMRC (and thus have a NI number) and would have no problems/worries registering with a GP?
“This should also stimulate the application of more machine and computer power to business activities to raise productivity”
Efficiencies that often cuts the number of real world jobs. True the number of employees within a company after such modernisation might remain the same as employees change rolls within the company, away from those the machines or computers have taken over, but there are no new jobs created. A fully automated warehouse for example is very efficient, increasing productivity and thus profits, which in turn (should) mean greater tax revenue going to HMT, only trouble is rather than employing tens or even hundreds of people the the actual number employed can often now be counted on the fingers of one hand…
July 19, 2021
How much longer are you MPs prepared to tolerate this authoritarian government? The harm they have done and continue to do is something I never thought to witness in this country. Are you all happy to live in an elective dictatorship as you go on holiday (though most seem to have been on holiday since this started)?
July 19, 2021
+ several millions if not billions!
July 19, 2021
Good morning- again
As pointed out by others, IR35 is largely to blame for the shortfall in lorry drivers. A government own goal.
But it is easier to blame BREXIT for just about everything rather than face the uncomfortable truth.
July 19, 2021
Only just over 50% of disabled people are in employment. The difference between this employment rate non-disabled people represents over two million workers, who with simple adjustments in place can fill these vacancies. It just needs employers to be smart enough and prepared to make these simple adjustments and to embrace the opportunity.
Highly motivated and loyal workers are waiting for the call.
July 19, 2021
N S
Many decades ago Companies were given a financial incentive by Government if it had on its books a number of registered disabled workers above a set percentage of the total.
Only aware because I worked for one, and they had a dedicated production line set up to take account of their disabled workers.
Then there was REMPLOY, (anyone remember this) but wisdom determined this was not a viable option anymore.
Not aware what if anything is in place now.
July 19, 2021
It was a shameful day when Blairâs Labour government liquidated all its funding to REMPLOYâŠ.the only one single subsidy I actually agreed with â to help the disabled people of the UK in meaningful work
July 20, 2021
Access to work provides companies with funding for adjustments. Disabled workers are more than special companies and quotas, they are just, and often more, productive as non-disabled worker in the mainstream when given the right adjustments and the opportunity.
This is the answer to the skills gap.
July 20, 2021
I disagree – REMPLOY worked okay…the labour party got it wrong then and this government still has it wrong
July 19, 2021
Whilst 6m EU citizens may have applied for settled status, it is false to assume that there are 6m EU citizens here. Rather settled status gives them an advantage over others as they effectively retain free movement for many years – whether they actually live here anymore or not. In this area they have more rights than Britons – who have had their right to free movement removed by the Tories.
Nothing has ever stopped our companies paying their staff more. It is welcome that they will now have to. But it will be an unwelcome surprise for Brexit voters who were promised lower prices and who will now face significant price hikes. I donât mind paying more for stuff. I can afford to. If you canât afford more and voted leave – oh dear. My heart bleeds.
July 19, 2021
They have more rights here in the UK because the UK has a decent reasonable scheme for European citizens post brexit.
Sadly the EU is still playing hard to get with having any equivalent system.
PS Re Wages
There always are many cheaper imports available as alternatives if UK products get more expensive.
Wages only make up a proportion of the total costs of running a company.
But I’m glad to hear you are in favour of fair wages.
For years employers using cheap EU workers on min wage have had that wage subsidised by the government adding benefits to their staff.
July 19, 2021
Andy, It is false to assume that there are only 6m EU citizens here. There fixed it for you. And actually EU empire serfs have fewer rights than we do – they cannot stop hordes of migrants entering their country, as we now can. And they cannot even elect their own top government.
Nothing has ever stopped our companies paying their staff more – except competition from companies paying their staff less. Do you have any understanding of economics at all? Certainly Stuart Rose had – he was your Remain chairman – and he admitted leaving would increase pay.
July 19, 2021
Just an off-topic reminder that the European Scrutiny Committee will quiz Lord Frost this afternoon:
https://www.parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/11928db9-9c05-4dfd-ba10-fde66a6954f0
I haven’t sent a letter to the Maidenhead Advertiser for this week’s edition because I’m waiting to see what he says today, and also in the next few days when he is set to reveal his grand plan to MPs.
However I have begun to draft a letter pointing out that for many years the Tory party said that we should not withdraw from the EU but rather work to reform it from within, and there was even a “Fresh Start” project to draw up plans for the desired reforms, and now the Tory party has reverted to type by saying that we should not withdraw from the Irish protocol but rather work with the EU to improve it.
And asking whether Boris Johnson remembers what happened when David Cameron tried to do that, even with the prospect of a UK referendum on membership looming large, and why he thinks he will be able to persuade the EU to relinquish the whip that he and his Tory MPs foolishly put in its hand.
It’s only a draft, maybe things will turn out better than I am expecting and it will go in the bin.
July 19, 2021
Oh dear, Boris Johnson and Lord Frost are committing the same fatal error as Theresa May, by gratuitously accepting responsibility for ensuring that Brussels/Dublin will not fortify their side of the Irish land border.
From 15:28:59 in the video below, with Lord Frost giving reasons for his earlier claim that there will always be a need for “a treaty relationship of some kind between us and the EU that covers Northern Ireland”:
https://www.parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/11928db9-9c05-4dfd-ba10-fde66a6954f0
âwe will always need something to ensure that thereâs no infrastructure or checks at a border which in the EUâs normal view of things wouldâ
What they do on their side is their responsibility, not ours; as Jacob Rees-Mogg pointed out in May 2018 Theresa May had made a terrible mistake about this in her Mansion House speech:
https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2021/01/21/my-question-during-business-questions/#comment-1205431
In any case, in November 2020 the Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney told the Irish News that the Irish government would not reinstate border checks even if there was no deal:
https://www.irishnews.com/news/northernirelandnews/2020/11/17/news/simon-coveney-hopes-controversial-british-government-bill-will-be-irrelevant-when-crunch-week-of-eu-uk-negotiations-ends-2131955/
“THERE will be no checks at the border on January 1 whether or not the EU and British government reach agreement on their future relationship, the Republicâs minister for foreign affairs has said.
Last night as EU negotiators warned the UK that time to strike a deal was running out, Simon Coveney told The Irish News that regardless of the outcome there will be no new infrastructure at crossing points.”
Why, oh why, is our government still being so stupid about this, what is the real reason?
July 19, 2021
Ha they will only quit the thing after the poll in 3.5 years’ time, which itself will be hard won. A poll within a poll. Did we have all this rubbish when we joined? Did every province individually need to agree to join? I think not. Sadly there is no UKIP any longer to press the PM to a poll as happened with the EU referendum.
July 19, 2021
So the Government had under estimated the number of European immigrants living here by 50%, well who would have thought that. !
I wonder what the figure is for immigrants from the rest of the World, then of course we have those who have entered illegally, and we wonder why housing and all of the other support services are struggling.
Why did the wonderful comprehensive Census forms not pick these people up ?
Oh perhaps those they did not know were here, did not bother to fill them in !!!!
Difficult to make it up isn’t it !
As I have said a number of times before, the hard facts are in the sewerage treatment works figures.
July 19, 2021
Since a large proportion of UK sewage is reportedly dumped untreated into the sea and rivers by the Tories’ friends the privatised companies, I’d assume that those figures are, at the very best, rough estimates.
July 19, 2021
Have you any proof of your claim that a large proportion of UK sewage is dumped into the seas and rivers MiC?
July 20, 2021
âSouthern Water fined record ÂŁ90m for deliberately dumping billions of litres of raw sewage into the sea in Hampshire, West Sussex and Kentâ, dailymail.co.uk, Rachel Bunyan, 09/07/2021.
July 20, 2021
How does that prove what MiC claimed that a large proportion of sewage is dumped into seas and rivers?
July 20, 2021
đđđ
July 21, 2021
Both of you are avoiding the question.
What proportion of the total is illegally discharged.
Is it “a large proportion” as you claimed MiC
Get your pal heff to do the figures for you.
July 19, 2021
so, in effect you doubt the accuracy of the ‘reportedly dumped’ figures.
July 20, 2021
They don’t need to be accurate – any rough order shows that the dumping is an absolute disgrace even if it were a hundred times less than claimed.
July 20, 2021
So not what you said but just bad anyway.
Hilarious MiC
July 20, 2021
P2, billion of litres = million of cubic meters = million of tonnes of polluted water. Even assuming a concentration of sewage at 0.1% (and that is extremely generous, more likely to be a few percent), that would still mean million of kilograms of sewage.
Will you take it badly if I donât accompany you for a swim within the foam rolls on this sandy beach?
July 21, 2021
Suffice it to say, Hefner, I think that you have proved reasonably, that the “figures” released by the privatised sewage companies are no more a conclusive guide to the number of people’s sewage being processed than are certain building materials manufacturer’s a guide to their fire resistance properties.
July 21, 2021
Oh dear, not all sewerage treatment plants are linked to outfall escapes into the sea, which incidentally usually happens at times of very high rainfall, although I agree its is absolutely disgusting that such discharge should happen at all.
Treatment works know the average daily volume of human waste treatment as its recorded, it is therefore not difficult to do a simple calculation on the average daily/weekly waste of one person, and then divide one by the other to get at least a comparison with the average of corresponding periods for past years/ months.
If the incoming waste has increased by 20% from a similar period, then I would suggest that is the likely increase in the local population that that treatment facility serves between the comparison times.
Clearly results from just one treatment plant is not enough to form a sensible conclusion, but link all of the results from all treatment plants together, and you surely get a very good idea of the population numbers as a whole.
Slough Council used this very method to investigate the size of the local population a number of years ago, and found thousands of extra people living in garden sheds, garages, illegal extensions and the like, of which they were previously unaware.
July 21, 2021
You both are missing/avoiding the point.
Is MiC’s claim that “a large proprtion” is discharged illegally, correct or not?
July 19, 2021
You rightly say âThere has also in the last year or so been a welcome expansion in the numbers of people setting up new businesses or working for themselves, greatly increasing flexibility and innovation in our economyâ.
A shame then that Sunak is at war with the self employed with his 90% reduction in entrepreneurs relief, IR35, further attack on pension pots, increased tax complexity and increased compliance costs, the net zero insanity, not allowing many legitimate deductions or interest and other costs âŠ. The man is clearly another tax, borrow and piss down the drain essentially socialist Chancellor. We should open up state schools, universities, the BBC and the NHS to fair and real competition too.
Excellent comment pieces in the Telegraph today by Lord Sumption, Douglas Murray and Nick Timothy (on Ms Dicks fairly appalling Met police service).
July 19, 2021
+1
Not just the present Chancellor, most of the others before him had the same view of the self employed, they do not like them because they are difficult to CONTROL and are a bit free spirited, often having to think outside the box to survive or move forward, the very traits we should be encouraging.!!!!
July 19, 2021
A Tory MP has twigged that face masks are about âsocial controlâ!
Took long enough for the penny to dropâŠwhirrâŠgrindâŠwhirr..but he got there!!
Bless.
July 22, 2021
Tell them that in the operating theatre. Off with your masks .
July 19, 2021
How does this government square the circle of 862,000 vacancies and 1,637,000 unemployed (ONS May 2021)
You can play around with taxes or subsidies or just bring in cheap foreign labour
July 19, 2021
a lot of the unemployed are forced to live in social housing well beyond travelling distance to the modern jobs market.
if things were working well the social housing landlords would be forced to build new houses near current jobs hotspots, and let people naturally move there of their own free will. and allow houses in places with no jobs to fail, and shut.
if the tenants had proper buying power in the relationship with social housing landlords this would happen, but it clearly does not happen.
July 19, 2021
Iain, they donât even put buses on to the nearest large business park with lots of jobs available, the hour commute each way on slow buses with an exchange miles out of the way doesnât help matters, who wants an hourâs commute for a 15 minute driving distance.
July 19, 2021
In the papers today is the story of a 45-year-old care worker, from Spain, refused settled status by the Brexitits.
The woman has been in the UK since she was a baby and has only ever lived here since. She is being kicked out of her home because she was born in another country.
Appalling.
100 calls to the Brexitists Home Office has not fixed it for her. She is a victim of Windrush 2.
Of all the appalling things the Brexitists have done – and there are many – the utter contempt they have shown for people is the worst part. Their project has disrupted and destroyed many lives – and they do not even express sympathy. Similarly we will not express sympathy when we help the Brexitists exchange their mansions for cells.
July 19, 2021
Here for 45 years and never ever applied for settled status nor citizenship.
Very odd.
But it is unfair.
The system needs to be handled more sympathetically and flexibly.
July 19, 2021
Don’t be alarmist. She is not being kicked out of her home. You have swallowed the Guardians drivel hook, line and sinker. Perhaps you should work on your comprehension and critical thinking. Oh, and maybe she would not have required 100 phone calls if she had not waited until after the cut off date.
July 19, 2021
Andy, I fully agree with your outline of failure and lack of any common-sense, but how do you know that Brexitists are dealing with her case. ?
Windrush was before we joined the EU, although the mess was not put right when we joined, indeed failure was only admitted, as a complete co-incidence, after we voted to leave.
July 19, 2021
She applied after the deadline, which has been known about for years. Hopefully remembers to feed and water her patients a bit more promptly.
July 19, 2021
I didn’t notice you being sympathetic when old Leave voters died. In fact I distinctly remember you gloating about it. And it’s you who says that her original EU home is preferable to Brexit Britain. Make you mind up.
July 19, 2021
Windrush was about West Indians being invited here, but given a hard time. Your invention now suggests Spanish nationals being treated the same? A vivid imagination, or just invented lies?
July 19, 2021
With a salary level of only ÂŁ25,600 per year, some employers will be enticed to replace their staff with cheap foreign workers. How is this supposed to reduce immigration and protect British workers? I saw this happen on a massive scale in the IT industry where I worked and the problem is set to continue with these very lax visa conditions.
If as predicted the ending of furlough results in high unemployment, then the Government needs to raise the visa salary level substantially and give generous tax breaks to companies providing training and apprenticeship opportunities.
July 19, 2021
Agree â the only people who would welcome a lower threshold work visa is the scumbag employers that want to exploit a cheaper foreign labour market âŠ.strange that this government has three times reduced the work visa threshold â and the labour party are supportive
July 19, 2021
As Dennis Skinner used to say, he worked as a miner alongside many Polish men, and there was never the slightest problem about them undercutting, because they were ALL in the UNION.
Tory anti-union law is the problem, NOT our fellow Europeans.
July 19, 2021
Thought Dennis Skinner was opposed to the EU
July 19, 2021
No, Martin, the undercutting would have been done by cheaper imported coal if the UNION rates were too high. You see how this competition thingy works?
July 19, 2021
You are completely free to join a Union if you want to.
Some do.
But many decide not to.
July 19, 2021
It seems your leader working with the Socialist client state is about to impose another lockdown and destroy the employment market once more with a strategy that is obviously coordinated and strategic. The timeline of events that we have seen this weekend is utterly shameless. It is planned and deliberate.
The UK cannot suffer from another politically invoked lockdown but this is what happens when Marxist bastards take control of the State
You were elected to defend our nation and the freedoms of the people from this out of control political State. Tory backbenchers are failing in their most primary duties
Surely silence on what we are seeing is unacceptable
I believe if Tory backbenchers don’t bring down this appalling leader then the UK and all that we are is in danger of being crushed
July 19, 2021
+1
Presumably the backbenchers are either âprotesting too muchâor playing staunchly by the rules. They havenât realised that they need to fight dirty to defeat the powers of darkness (assuming they even want to!)
July 19, 2021
Client of whom, or of what?
July 19, 2021
Following the latest Conservative government SDSR – where another two anti-submarine frigates have been paid off, it seems that the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp Navy has seen fit to sail two amphibious assault ships into the English Channel.
The pair, the frigate IRINS Sahand and former oil-tanker-turned warship IRINS Makran have sailed up the West coast of Africa, past Spain and France and are now approaching the southern coast of England.
https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/iranian-warships-in-english-channel
Unfortunately, the Admiralty is currently strapped for warships that could escort the Iranian vessels as they transit the Channel. HMS Queen Elizabeth and her Carrier Strike Group are now in the Indian ocean and HMS Diamond is alongside in Cyprus – suffering a serious Chinese plague virus outbreak – The Royal Navy may have to despatch a River class offshore patrol ship to keep an eye on them.
Clearly, the RN urgently need more warships and men
July 19, 2021
Perhaps, fulfilling Peter Simple’s prophecy, the Lords of the Admiralty will dispatch a dredger.
July 19, 2021
But have we got any dredgers? Do we not depend on the Dutch for dredgers and all salvage too?
PS. When will the Chinese send a flotilla and stand it off Portsmouth or Dartmouth? Perhaps we will be able to rake up a couple of university training boats to watch them. ‘Boris’ will try to brag about it.
July 19, 2021
Iago
I think we have more Admirals than fighting ships, perhaps they may hire a ship to escort it. Plenty of them at anchor at the moment just off the South Coast of the UK, If they send out a signal asking the Queen Elizabeth to escort them, they may pick up the signal and think its the aircraft carrier, instead of the cruise ship.
July 19, 2021
Are you sure it wasn’t just more Iranian dinghy people?
July 19, 2021
This government sub-contracted Royal Navy training to the United States Navy without flinching nor consideration for tradition, maybe this government has also sub-contracted the patrolling of the English Channel to the Iranian Navy
July 19, 2021
Let’s make a few things clear:
1. Brexit was always INTENDED to reduce the availability of cheap imported labour in order to drive up wages for ordinary workers, both to benefit them as individuals and also to reduce the need for supplementary benefits, thus easing the burden on the exchequer. Brexit is working. Recent data shows that wages ARE rising, and that’s a GOOD thing.
2. Britain lags the world in terms of productivity, specifically because employers have always preferred to rely on cheap human labour rather than invest in mechanisation. Look at the global rankings in the use of industrial robots: top of the table is South Korea, with 631 robots per 10,000 employees (2016 figures, the most recent I have). The top country in Europe is (unsurprisngly) Germany, with 309. The global average, taking into account much poorer and less advanced countries, is 74. The figure for the UK is a pitiful 71. This is appalling. All our EU rivals are far ahead of us, with countries like Belgium, Italy, Spain, Denmark, etc all on well over twice the number here. We NEED a tightening of the labour market to force lazy companies to invest in robots.
3. There are several small startups developing harvesting robots. If the government had two brain cells to rub together they would be investing heavily in speeding this up, with a wartime sense of ugency. In truth, a few tens of million would do, but whilst the cretins in charge can waste ÂŁ40 BILLION of a useless (in every sense of the word) Test & Trace scheme, they won’t invest a tiny fraction of that were it is actually needed.
4. Many shortages of labour have been caused by the idiotic Covid restrictions, not Brexit. A failure to carry out driving tests, for instance, means there is a backlog of around 30,000 tests for truck drivers. The drivers are out there, but just can’t get their licences because of moronic government restrictions!
July 19, 2021
We certainly do not have insufficient potential workers in the UK. We even have more EU nationals in the UK than Denmark – and those are just the ones we know about.
The problem is that for decades our governments and businesses have preferred to take the short-term option to import workers from Europe and elsewhere not only to keep UK wages lower but also to avoid training and invest costs.
In addition our governments and educational establishment decided that occupational skills were not to be taught in schools even to those pupils who wanted these courses.
July 20, 2021
Consider this.
The pro-rata average crime rate in the European Union is about half of the UK’s.
So if the entire population were replaced by our fellow Europeans, then crime, without more, would be halved at a stroke.
July 20, 2021
You need to look at the great variation between EU member countries before that claim can be accepted.
What if the majority who come to the UK were from nations that have the highest figure in the EU?
July 20, 2021
What, you mean like our Essex rough trade lives in Spain now?
Good point Pete.
Now re-read and understand my comment.
July 20, 2021
What a nonsensical comment MiC
Try re reading what I said
You are getting beyond desperate.
What is it 30 posts a day?
July 21, 2021
Well, since you “reply” to every single one of my posts, to those of Andy, of Hefner, and of others, yours must be some multiple again of that figure, Pete?
However, you inadvertently touch on a valid point.
The fact of the Tories’ failure to engage properly with the European Union’s police database sharing did indeed make this country attractive as a safer hiding place for some European criminals, and there is some evidence that they did come here for that reason, often from places such as Lithuania.
July 21, 2021
I reply more to you because most of your posts contain unproven wild claims which when challenged can be seen to be wrong.
July 19, 2021
For those double-jabbed intrepid travellers who may be contemplating a foreign holiday by taking advantage of Johnson’s “Freedom Day” here is a list of 56 countries that have banned all travel to/from the UK, or which require expensive compulsory quarantine on arrival:-
Austria Belgium Czech Republic Finland Germany Hungary Latvia Liechtenstein
Luxembourg Netherlands Norway Russia Switzerland Slovakia Sweden USA
Canada Argentina Brazil Chile Guatemala Honduras Panama Suriname Uruguay
Bhutan Brunei Cambodia China Hong Kong India Indonesia Israel Japan Kazakhstan
Laos Iran Kuwait Malaysia Mongolia Myanmar Nepal Oman Philippines Qatar
Sri Lanka South Korea Singapore Saudi Arabia Taiwan Tajikistan Thailand
Timor-Leste Turkmenistan Uzbekistan Vietnam Australia New Zealand
As far as I can establish we are the No1 banned country in the globe. Clearly, the rest of the world is unimpressed at our impressive ability to breed vaccine-resistant and hyper-transmissible variants of the Chinese plague virus.
July 20, 2021
Thank you very much – that’s highly informative.
Actions do indeed speak louder than words.
July 20, 2021
That’s odd because a double jabbed family member is travelling to USA next week to continue studies at a University and has easily got permission to do that.
July 19, 2021
Take anything you don’t like about the labour market, immigration, the number of EU citizens in the UK, the proportion of the population of this and that country who now live in the UK and ask how it would be if we had remained in the EU for another decade.
The UK voter had a very sound instinct that things were spinning out of control and they nipped it in the bud. They solved a medium-sized problem, and avoided a giant one ten years down the road.
July 19, 2021
Off topic. Sir John , I am extremely grateful to you for your speech on Northern Ireland. The truth had to be stated as the MSM cannot be trusted.
July 19, 2021
Emboldened by recent actions by the French Government, Johnson has resumed skating around the Nuremberg Codes on coerced medical experimentation by announcing that from the end of September, those who are not ‘double-jabbed’ will be barred from clubs and other large venues. Why those who are already immune or at negligible risk need to be jabbed, or what happens to those advised not to partake due to allergies or pregnancy is not explained. What this really tells us is that they have already planned the September lockdown and thereafter access to venues is irrelevant. Johnson also said that access to ‘the personal freedoms we love’ would become more and more dependant on medical records, you could almost see the odious Blair pulling his strings. And yet there is a deafening silence in Parliament from the Opposition and those outside the cabal, almost like some Chinese political body.
July 19, 2021
Just out of interest, when did you lot vote to force people to show their papers when going to a nightclub from September ? How come a negative test is regarded as a less effective way of preventing transmission of Covid than vaccination and so wonât allow you to go to a nightclub ? How come if nightclubs are so dangerous they are being opened with no restrictions at all until September ? The vaccines minister said only three days ago a vaccine-only passport would be discriminatory so why is he now discriminating against people ?
July 19, 2021
well Boris has decided to take on some very rich rock stars who can get on the front page easily, with this nonsense about needing a vaccine certificate. I dont think Boris can win. there are enough rich people to take it on. and enough people with better public profile than any politician that will destroy this is the court of public opinion.
all bets are off now the government has lost the faith of ordinary people.
July 19, 2021
Nigel Farage asked of his co presenter whether, in the face of this totalitarian âFreedom Farceâ,the Tory back benchers would ever actually rebel in any meaningful way.
Mr F and his colleague chuckled quite loudly.
Well..they fell about laughing actually.
July 19, 2021
I wonder if anyone has given any thought to the unreadiness for retraining or competitive job application of those who have been taking it easy on furlough for 15 months, without any work-related stimulus or mental challenge. Combined with the changes in social habits, and the unavoidable imminent collapse of many zombie businesses, that could be social dynamite.
July 19, 2021
BBC reporting 50 illegal immigrants in a single boat crossed the channel todayâŠ.and the French didnât even see it â never mind its another 50 cheap car washers to be exploited
July 20, 2021
Update – 430 yesterday
July 19, 2021
OT but certainly related to the job market. Following 2 of the largest night club groups who publicly stated they will not be asking for test or vax status at the week-end, Johnson has announced only a double vaxed passport will allow you entry to a night time or other large venues!!!
This may also have something to do with the fact the numbers of those being vaccinated has dropped from approx. over half a million a day down to 18,000 a day.
This draconian decision has resulted in
“MPS LAUNCH CROSS-PARTY CAMPAIGN AGAINST COVID PASSES
To date, 9 rights groups, 14 peers and 79 MPs have joined the cross-party campaign to oppose COVID-status certificates. MPs and peers from Labour, the Liberal Democrats and Conservative parties have signed a pledge: “We oppose the divisive and discriminatory use of COVID status certification to deny individuals access to general services, businesses or jobs.”
Will you also be signing up to opposing this insanity Johnson wants to impose?
Either way, it is time Johnson and his fellow control freaks were gone, because it has naff all to do with health.
July 19, 2021
Update: I see you have signed to oppose this. Many thanks to you and the other MP’s.
July 20, 2021
I get the impression that the government is not bothered by shortages of trained people or even goods — After all the GREAT RESET takes care of all of that by insisting that a viable world population is a fraction of what it is today.
…and that is the plane we are following, isn’t it?
July 20, 2021
Glen C â above: No longer just 50. Several hundreds over the last three days. Many hundreds over the last week or more though reporting & info being issued to us the public by the main media and H O is poor & it does not tell the whole story but there is additional information to be found elsewhere. 430 arrivals yesterday, Monday & hundreds before that â 241 reported Sunday. Even the BBC has now reported those two figures. Boats are reportedly getting larger. People have already started to arrive today, Tues 20th. The clandestine Channel Threat Commander is reported to have said âThere is an unacceptable rise in dangerous small boat crossings across the Channel because of a surge in illegal immigration across Europeâ Who Knew ! Forget all the plans for paperwork and IDs for we plebs and maybe get cracking on ingenious & devious ways to collect more tax from us and start planning & getting the funds set aside for all those training courses which may be needed, probably not yet budgeted for in the current millions/billions. Bitter voter ? Indeed.