The Conservative Party

[BrianW]

Move to the other end of the country (away from your family) and live in a decrepit caravan for six weeks doing temporary farm work. Look forward to the fun of coming home and waiting weeks for your benefits to be restarted. (With the bonus that we may find a reason to say 'no'.)

 

[mexico1970]

Move to the other end of the country (away from your family) and live in a decrepit caravan for six weeks doing temporary farm work. Look forward to the fun of coming home and waiting weeks for your benefits to be restarted. (With the bonus that we may find a reason to say 'no'.)

We need to either pay more for our fruit, or bring in loads of people who will live in decrepit caravans and unsanitary conditions.

It's a tough choice.

 

[Mr Kobayashi]

We need to either pay more for our fruit, or bring in loads of people who will live in decrepit caravans and unsanitary conditions.

It's a tough choice.

Or sections of fruit agriculture industry will just decline and then cease to exist. We'll import more fruits and stop eating strawberries all year round.

There's a ceiling that people will pay for fresh fruit and everything else is already going up.

I thought Brexit was meant to make food cheaper?

 

[Fred_Quimby]

Or sections of fruit agriculture industry will just decline and then cease to exist. We'll import more fruits and stop eating strawberries all year round.

There's a ceiling that people will pay for fresh fruit and everything else is already going up.

I thought Brexit was meant to make food cheaper?

And with the new import restrictions on all the fruit and veg coming in from the EU non of it will be fresh and it will cost more. The benefits of Brexit just keep on mounting.

 

[BrianW]

We need to either pay more for our fruit, or bring in loads of people who will live in decrepit caravans and unsanitary conditions.

It's a tough choice.

We also need to choose to be more flexible with benefits, so people who choose to take up temporary employment get straight back on them when it ends with no bureaucratic bullshit.

And we need to restructure society completely so that farm labourers can afford to live in farm labourers' cottages in villages again, as opposed to stockbrokers and retired academics who contribute nothing to a functioning local economy. And let's not get started on second/third/fourth homes and Air BNB.

 

[mexico1970]

We also need to choose to be more flexible with benefits, so people who choose to take up temporary employment get straight back on them when it ends with no bureaucratic bullshit.

And we need to restructure society completely so that farm labourers can afford to live in farm labourers' cottages in villages again, as opposed to stockbrokers and retired academics who contribute nothing to a functioning local economy. And let's not get started on second/third/fourth homes and Air BNB.

Every single bit of that I agree with mate.

 

[Alan Harper's Tash]

We also need to choose to be more flexible with benefits, so people who choose to take up temporary employment get straight back on them when it ends with no bureaucratic bullshit.

And we need to restructure society completely so that farm labourers can afford to live in farm labourers' cottages in villages again, as opposed to stockbrokers and retired academics who contribute nothing to a functioning local economy. And let's not get started on second/third/fourth homes and Air BNB.

Not to mention the £200 it’d take for a worker to get the train down to Kent.

 

[BrianW]

Not to mention the £200 it’d take for a worker to get the train down to Kent.

If we were serious about this (which we, as a society, are not) the DWP would issue travel warrants. It really is that simple.

But all this will be costly and people don't want to pay more tax. They want to pay the least possible amount and for everything to work by magic. It isn't practicable.

 

[Alan Harper's Tash]

If we were serious about this (which we, as a society, are not) the DWP would issue travel warrants. It really is that simple.

But all this will be costly and people don't want to pay more tax. They want to pay the least possible amount and for everything to work by magic. It isn't practicable.

People don’t have the money to pay more tax though. It’s a cyclic argument.

Pay more tax, U.K. workers get paid better to pick fruit, cost of fruit goes up in supermarket, people can’t afford to pay the price of fruit because it’s gone on tax.

Until capitalism grows a conscience, it’ll always be a race to the bottom.

Then there’s the paradox of the people not wanting immigration also not wanting to give handouts for free, which the free travel pass would be deemed.

 

[threespires]

I don't term these jobs menial, the people who want their coffee served or their backsides wiped on the cheap decide that.

Probably right about the coffee but my experience of people that require assistance with personal care is that they are actually very grateful for the people who look after them and pretty appalled by how little they earn.

 

[Mr Kobayashi]

People don’t have the money to pay more tax though. It’s a cyclic argument.

Pay more tax, U.K. workers get paid better to pick fruit, cost of fruit goes up in supermarket, people can’t afford to pay the price of fruit because it’s gone on tax.

Until capitalism grows a conscience, it’ll always be a race to the bottom.

Then there’s the paradox of the people not wanting immigration also not wanting to give handouts for free, which the free travel pass would be deemed.

Good point. The cost of accommodation is probably the single greatest issue in terms of cost of living. Where I live the UC element of rent is fixed at £375 for a single person under 35, a bedsit will cost at least £200 more. There's not enough council houses. The stock will continue depleting because it doesn't make sense not to exercise right to buy if you can.

If you are single person on average wage working full time you could be paying half your income on rent before any other bills. Is it any wonder that people move away from small towns, don't spend any money in local shops and there are vacancies in labour intensive and criminally underpaid sectors such as social care when the reality is people have to use expensive credit just to get by day to day?

Thick Brexiteer boomers like @dazdon/Mexico1970 really are a fucking blight on our country.

 

[mexico1970]

If we were serious about this (which we, as a society, are not) the DWP would issue travel warrants. It really is that simple.

But all this will be costly and people don't want to pay more tax. They want to pay the least possible amount and for everything to work by magic. It isn't practicable.

Some of the charlatans on here would still prefer to bring in foreign labour to live in shit conditions so they can get cheaper fruit. You posted a solution and they slip and slide giving reasons why it can't happen.

Pay more tax? Fuck it!

 

[East Level 2]

Or sections of fruit agriculture industry will just decline and then cease to exist. We'll import more fruits and stop eating strawberries all year round.

There's a ceiling that people will pay for fresh fruit and everything else is already going up.

I thought Brexit was meant to make food cheaper?

Erm Covid and Ukraine. Innit.
Or perhaps the leavers were telling porkies. Surely not.

 

[Mr Kobayashi]

Some of the charlatans on here would still prefer to bring in foreign labour to live in shit conditions so they can get cheaper fruit. You posted a solution and they slip and slide giving reasons why it can't happen.

Pay more tax? Fuck it!

How does a higher tax rate help fruit farms unless you are proposing subsidies?

Wasn't Brexit about removing agricultural subsidies?

Unless you want a caste of serfs travelling around the country picking fruit, which isn't going to happen. Migrant labour was prepared to put up with shitty caravans because of the exchange rate between GBP and zloty/levs/leu. That bonus doesn't exist for the long term unemployed.

The only realistic solution other than eating less fruit or importing more is to copy the Netherlands and adopt technology and automation that makes fruit cultivation more commercial and reduces waste.

But that requires resources, a plan and the will to put into action. Who has the plan?

 

[East Level 2]

Nope, read my post again.

We shouldn't be allowing people in just to serve us and do menial tasks, but a vocal minority do want that.

Do you want that?

If we don't have people to serve us then the hospitality industry turns to rat-shit. If the unemployed won't take up those jobs then we have to allow people in to do them or force the unemployed to do them which will hardly generate good customer service.
You could argue we can do without a hospitality industry I suppose, but we can't do without a care industry and once again we need people who are willing to do those jobs.
Farming is a special case as many farms are miles away from public transport so some sort of onsite accommodation may be required. But this has led to farmers (or legalised slavers known as gangmasters) charging a fortune for sub-standard accommodation. Having said that, I can't see many youngsters wanting to live on a farm for a prolonged period.
The whole thing is a cluster-fuck and restricting visas to those willing to do the work is yet another act of utter stupidity.

 

[Alan Harper's Tash]

How does a higher tax rate help fruit farms unless you are proposing subsidies?

Wasn't Brexit about removing agricultural subsidies?

Unless you want a caste of serfs travelling around the country picking fruit, which isn't going to happen. Migrant labour was prepared to put up with shitty caravans because of the exchange rate between GBP and zloty/levs/leu. That bonus doesn't exist for the long term unemployed.

The only realistic solution other than eating less fruit or importing more is to copy the Netherlands and adopt technology and automation that makes fruit cultivation more commercial and reduces waste.

But that requires resources, a plan and the will to put into action. Who has the plan?

His ideology that we could rely less on immigrants is sound, but there is no way of implementing it that doesn’t create lots of bankruptcy and homelessness. It seems he’s willing to go further than most as it’s a necessary price to pay. Fortunately, no political party would ever go that far, so his plan will never be realistic.

Ironically, the 10 years before Covid hit were the time to try it, not now with borrowing through the roof and high inflation, with 50% of the country hitting their credit limits.

 

[TinFoilHat]

Water firms ask for bill rises of between 24% and 91% - BBC News

Southern Water wants to increase its bills by £436 a year, but is not expected to get approval.

www.bbc.co.uk

Thank you Tory bastards.

 

[Mr Kobayashi]

His ideology that we could rely less on immigrants is sound, but there is no way of implementing it that doesn’t create lots of bankruptcy and homelessness. It seems he’s willing to go further than most as it’s a necessary price to pay. Fortunately, no political party would ever go that far, so his plan will never be realistic.

Ironically, the 10 years before Covid hit were the time to try it, not now with borrowing through the roof and high inflation, with 50% of the country hitting their credit limits.

Ideology can exist in a bubble outside of reality. Which is exactly where he lives.

He hasn't volunteered to do one of these roles instead. He's basically advocating North Korean style autarky and forced Labour.

And as I've pointed ad nauseum, he was in favour of more immigrants from the commonwealth when it was UKIP policy and before he voted Brexit.

 

[Alan Harper's Tash]

Ideology can exist in a bubble outside of reality. Which is exactly where he lives.

He hasn't volunteered to do one of these roles instead. He's basically advocating North Korean style autarky and forced Labour.

And as I've pointed ad nauseum, he was in favour of more immigrants from the commonwealth when it was UKIP policy and before he voted Brexit.

Ironically, Che Guevara would probably agree with his ideology though.

 

[bluethrunthru]

Pay more tax, U.K. workers get paid better to pick fruit, cost of fruit goes up in supermarket, people can’t afford to pay the price of fruit because it’s gone on tax.

" STRAWBERRIES - GENT YOUR ENGLISH STRAWBERRIES FIVE PAHND A PUNNET"
"strawberries - get your Spanish strawberries two pahnd a punnet"

Which do you think a market trader will stock? The ones that sell thats what.

The Tory plans are always inflationary now - this and the idea that people who are already selling houses to fund social care will turn to their kids and THEY will re-mortgage to pay for mums care. Everything is thought up at 10am and announced as a policy at 1pm with no practical thought as to how it will be done and its impact.