Something has to give
Looking at today’s wage figures is bad enough, the gap they expose between inflation and pay means that this recession is going to hurt like few others.
But look beyond this year. If you think when inflation dies down, as it will, the problem is over you are wrong.
Private sector wages are not keeping up but public sector workers are falling further and further down the pay scale. They were before this downturn and they still will be after. You cannot recruit enough teachers, doctors, soldiers, nurses, police or civil servants if you treat them like dirt and rely on their good nature and willingness to serve.
Now look at the immigration figures, the latest estimates from the CER and the UK in a changing Europe is that the economy has lost 330,000 workers as a result of Brexit.
Since immigration is pretty much guaranteed to increase growth you see what a mess the UK is in.
Cutting off your nose to spite your face costs money, a great deal of money. So you slash spending, squeeze public sector wages and hope to get away with it.
The British government is therefore in a viscous spiral of decline, it is quite unbelievably helping to shackle its own economy and trying to pass the pain on to the working population.
Something will have to give.
Economics, trade and Brexit, not necessarily in that order but the dog always comes first.
By Jonty Bloom Media