Keir Starmer

[metalblue]

We must wean economy off immigration, Labour leader warns businesses

Labour's leader promises a "pragmatic" immigration policy in a speech to business leaders.

www.bbc.co.uk

This was the guardians response when Johnson made the same correlative points this time last year

“Will wages rise if we limit the number of migrant workers?

Theoretically, acute labour shortages could, over the longer term, force employers to spend more money training domestic workers, resulting in higher wages. Speaking on Radio 4’s Today programme, the justice minister, Dominic Raab, said a dearth of agricultural labour would force farmers to mechanise crop picking, thereby improving the productivity of the workers who remained, allowing for higher wages without rising prices.

But as Tony Danker, the director-general of the CBI, asked in response to Johnson’s speech, where would the money come from for all this extra investment? He said: “Ambition on wages without action on investment and productivity is ultimately just a pathway for higher prices.”

I’m sure some on here would have also derided Johnson’s logic. U-turn incoming?

 

[blueparrot]

We must wean economy off immigration, Labour leader warns businesses

Labour's leader promises a "pragmatic" immigration policy in a speech to business leaders.

www.bbc.co.uk

This was the guardians response when Johnson made the same correlative points this time last year

“Will wages rise if we limit the number of migrant workers?

Theoretically, acute labour shortages could, over the longer term, force employers to spend more money training domestic workers, resulting in higher wages. Speaking on Radio 4’s Today programme, the justice minister, Dominic Raab, said a dearth of agricultural labour would force farmers to mechanise crop picking, thereby improving the productivity of the workers who remained, allowing for higher wages without rising prices.

But as Tony Danker, the director-general of the CBI, asked in response to Johnson’s speech, where would the money come from for all this extra investment? He said: “Ambition on wages without action on investment and productivity is ultimately just a pathway for higher prices.”

I’m sure some on here would have also derided Johnson’s logic. U-turn incoming?

Johnson was wrong, Starmer is wrong. Just as they are both wrong on Single market and freedom of movement.Nothing difficult there.

 

[metalblue]

Johnson was wrong, Starmer is wrong. Just as they are both wrong on Single market and freedom of movement.Nothing difficult there.

I respect your consistency, TBF I had in my head a list of those who would remain loyal to their core beliefs - you were one of the names I expected to.

Be interesting to see if the guardian do - they’re not on my list but I’m always happy to be proven wrong.

Anyroad do we now have a Tory government adopting Labour policy and a Labour opposition adopting Tory policy?

 

[blueparrot]

I respect your consistency, TBF I had in my head a list of those who would remain loyal to their core beliefs - you were one of the names I expected to.

Be interesting to see if the guardian do - they’re not on my list but I’m always happy to be proven wrong.

Anyroad do we now have a Tory government adopting Labour policy and a Labour opposition adopting Tory policy?

I think we have a Labour party playing much safer than they need to. I wonder what would happen if the Tories did agree a Swiss style agreement with some freedom of movement, as unlikely as that seems , would Labour back track or would they promise to reverse it in their manifesto ?

 

[Saddleworth2]

Johnson was wrong, Starmer is wrong. Just as they are both wrong on Single market and freedom of movement.Nothing difficult there.

Spot on. Two cheeks from the same arse.

 

[metalblue]

I think we have a Labour party playing much safer than they need to. I wonder what would happen if the Tories did agree a Swiss style agreement with some freedom of movement, as unlikely as that seems , would Labour back track or would they promise to reverse it in their manifesto ?

They’d shore up much of the further right wing vote if they promised to reverse it! If it would see them gain a Johnson size majority would depend largely on the frustrations with Brexit within those who voted for it. I very much doubt Labour would promise anything though that hadn’t been rubber stamped by focus groups, and that’s not a criticism.

The problem/advantage for Labour right now is they know they can’t do all the things they would like to, this adds to their electability as everything is “safe” - and for the party securing victory next GE allows them to build on a more socialist vision in their second term which they will undoubtedly win as most parties tend to do if they largely stick to their manifesto and do a half decent job.

 

[Don Karleone]

Getting praise from Farage now. Not a good look.

 

[BeerIsTheBest]

a caller to Radio 2 today was cut off at the knees whilst making what seemed to me to be a series of brilliant succinct points. Something like 1.2m known vacancies, c5m folk in the UK claiming unemployment benefit and a reluctance and/or downright opposition to encouraging the use of temporary labour from overseas.
How many Brits want to work their asses off in hospitality, social care or basic agricultural tasks for min wage.
The solutions seem obvious but grind against the ideology which seems to be consuming politicians. It’s surreal to me and we just continue our race to the bottom.

 

[Gareth Barry Conlon]

Getting praise from Farage now. Not a good look.

I'm still hopeful that Labour are playing a game of adopting positions that pile pressure on the tories. The tories long for the day they could attack Labour on their remainer approach. In the absence of such discussions many tories are just left wondering why they have tanked the economy through such a harsh brexit. The kite flying last weekend was evidence of tories putting the feelers out for a better EU relationship.

Long term Labour members will force the leadership to adopt a pro EU stance.

 

[bluenova]

We must wean economy off immigration, Labour leader warns businesses

Labour's leader promises a "pragmatic" immigration policy in a speech to business leaders.

www.bbc.co.uk

This was the guardians response when Johnson made the same correlative points this time last year

“Will wages rise if we limit the number of migrant workers?

Theoretically, acute labour shortages could, over the longer term, force employers to spend more money training domestic workers, resulting in higher wages. Speaking on Radio 4’s Today programme, the justice minister, Dominic Raab, said a dearth of agricultural labour would force farmers to mechanise crop picking, thereby improving the productivity of the workers who remained, allowing for higher wages without rising prices.

But as Tony Danker, the director-general of the CBI, asked in response to Johnson’s speech, where would the money come from for all this extra investment? He said: “Ambition on wages without action on investment and productivity is ultimately just a pathway for higher prices.”

I’m sure some on here would have also derided Johnson’s logic. U-turn incoming?

Isn't the point that Johnson's "logic" was simply a result of randomness?

It took Covid for much of the major upheaval to happen - with lots of people leaving as the jobs dried up, and wages falling - then a lack of planning as things opened up, so we saw wages rise due to bouncing back from the Covid falls, but also much more upward pressure as people were either no longer in the country, or not wanting to return to the same kind of jobs.

As the guy from the CBI says, this kind of thing needs to be part of a wider plan, or you just end up with higher prices, and that's what's happened. Raab's comments were a post-event reaction to the crisis in agriculture, and not something that they'd planned in advance.

No-one has ever accused Boris of having a long term plan for the economy.