The Consequences of Brexit [part 4]

[sgtkate]

I can't work out what is going to happen regarding the wages to costs ratio. At the moment costs are going up due to the falling sterling and it looks as though that will continue. It also seems that due to uncertainty over future rights and the nasty xenophobic current around, already fewer EU workers are choosing to come here (the weather and the food can't be that tempting either). That probably means that in some sectors wages will go up because there will be labour shortages. But then the price will increase to reflect the higher labour costs. So whether UK workers will end up better or worse off is hard to tell - any takers?

 

Who cares if we are better or worse?!?! We'll have our SOVEREIGNTY goddammit.

[L00b]

Who cares if we are better or worse?!?! We'll have our SOVEREIGNTY goddammit.

No, you won't.

 

The Supreme Court defined that Sovereignty once and for all, as vesting in Parliament at the beginning of the year.

 

But the Bill voted through last night is the first stone in assigning that 'sovereignty' to Ministers instead.

 

They didn't manage to grab it with the Royal prerogative last year.

 

They'll grab it with the Henry VIII clauses in the Repeal Bill instead.

I can't work out what is going to happen regarding the wages to costs ratio.<...> So whether UK workers will end up better or worse off is hard to tell - any takers?

Inflation doesn't cause wage increases. Inflation causes erosion of living standards, and then workers demand wage increases. But if trade, turnover, profits and tax take are down (which they are, a year on from the referendum), there isn't be any money for wage increases. And in the current, ongoing uncertainty, where the possibility of a cliff-edge hard Brexit is still hovering (and looking increasingly likely atm), it'd be a brave employer who would bet trade, turnover, profits or tax takes are about to go up.

 

In the UK, food, energy and imports have gone up. The have-nots are getting deeper in debt. Car sales have fallen (scrappage deals mean that profit per car has fallen too). There is full employment, but this is the longest period of wage stagnation in the last 150 years: in real terms people are losing 3% a year. How much spending money is left after the bills? Not enough to save, and that's very widely publicised. Now take 3% of a wage off that.

 

From a high view, what' happened with Brexit is really simple:

 

Rich bosses pay workers too little and CEOs too much.

Workers complain.

Rich bosses buy newspapers, and have the papers blame EU immigrants and the EU for bad pay.

Workers vote for Brexit, taking themselves out of EU social protections and leaving themselves at the mercy of the Tories who are also bought by the rich bosses.

Now rich bosses say they are competing with China and India, instead of France and Germany.

So they must pay workers even less, so there is still as much (or more) for themselves and their Tory pets' golden castle moat duck islands.

 

So to answer your question: the UK will pull up the drawbridge for EU immigrants (per leaked papers) which will put a stop to most of the EU immigration, skilled and unskilled. The UK will continue to mass-import non-EU immigrants in greater numbers than EU immigrants, the same way it has for the 5+ years. At today's prices, a Kenyan GP is cheaper to hire than a German one, likewise a Filipino nurse relative to a Spanish one. So wages will continue to stagnate, then depress further once trading under WTO-grade conditions takes hold and profits dive. Worker's rights will be gradually trimmed by Ministers without Parliamentary oversight, in aid of their sponsors now competing with the world and its dog directly, i.e. without the EU's safety-in-numbers net (which went a long way to restore parity into the cost base of imported products).

 

Net result: all those who voted for Brexit as a cry for help out of their socio-economic situation and lack of opportunities, shall be the worst-affected. As usual.

Edited September 12, 2017 by L00b

[chalga]

Core inflation now the highest since 2011 in figures released this morning.

[Lord Rex]

We are blessed there were enough honest decent MPs who voted correctly last night, who followed the democratic instructions the UK gave them last June.

 

---------- Post added 12-09-2017 at 09:41 ----------

 

Who cares if we are better or worse?!?! We'll have our SOVEREIGNTY goddammit.

Well said. We will soon be a sovereign nation again and rule ourselves.

[sgtkate]

No, you won't.

 

Whoosh!

 

---------- Post added 12-09-2017 at 10:04 ----------

 

We are blessed there were enough honest decent MPs who voted correctly last night, who followed the democratic instructions the UK gave them last June.

 

---------- Post added 12-09-2017 at 09:41 ----------

 

Well said. We will soon be a sovereign nation again and rule ourselves.

 

ROFL! Another whoosh.

[ez8004]

We are blessed there were enough honest decent MPs who voted correctly last night, who followed the democratic instructions the UK gave them last June.

 

---------- Post added 12-09-2017 at 09:41 ----------

 

Well said. We will soon be a sovereign nation again and rule ourselves.

 

I'll be enjoying watching the fallout of decreasing living standards for the majority and the ever increasing gap of social inequality.

 

This morning's announcement that inflation has hit 2.9% gave me a wry smile. Good thing my wage rose by 76% two years ago to help buffer the decision made last June.

[L00b]

Whoosh!

No woosh here, Ma'am. I'm well aware of your stance on the topic and the sarcasm in your post - which nevertheless provided me with a useful opening to post about a very recent development.

 

 

But 'Brexit' does not impact on interpersonal relationships, UKIP/'Leave' has never been anti-foreigner (in that context), and so your post is not very relevant.

I'm in the unenviable position of having to ask my British wife to move to the EU (non-English speaking, this time), and to either take her elderly mother with us (effectively abandoning her care home-bound partner here), or to leave her here for fending on her own (no other family/support but us).

 

I very much doubt that we're the only EU/Brit mixed-nationality couple in the UK in that situation (M-I-L -involved or not).

 

Still think Brexit does not impact on interpersonal relationships, Jeffrey?

 

[sgtkate]

No woosh here, Ma'am. I'm well aware of your stance on the topic and the sarcasm in your post - which nevertheless provided me with a useful opening to post about a very recent development.

 

 

 

Apologies, I was thinking surely by NOW you must know I'm a remainer!

[retep]

No woosh here, Ma'am. I'm well aware of your stance on the topic and the sarcasm in your post - which nevertheless provided me with a useful opening to post about a very recent development.

 

 

I'm in the unenviable position of having to ask my British wife to move to the EU (non-English speaking, this time), and to either take her elderly mother with us (effectively abandoning her care home-bound partner here), or to leave her here for fending on her own (no other family/support but us).

 

I very much doubt that we're the only EU/Brit mixed-nationality couple in the UK in that situation (M-I-L -involved or not).

 

Still think Brexit does not impact on interpersonal relationships, Jeffrey?

 

 

Sounds like abandon ship-- me first.

[L00b]

Sounds like abandon ship-- me first.

Sounds like whatever you want to hear, as usual.

 

What's it to you, anyway: one less EU immigrant in the country, I'd have thought you -of all posters- would be happy, surely?

 

Or don't you want us EU types to go, now?

Edited September 12, 2017 by L00b