OT: Old Mrs. May's fudge shoppe

[Elite_Pie]

Brits won't work for slave wages and yet they're villified for not doing so, pay a reasonable, living wage and people will gladly work to improve their lives.

Not all of them. There is an underclass here who have no intention of working whatever the pay on offer.

[tarquinbeech]

Any civilised system should feed the needy and unable-to-work. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt on this because you used inverted commas for "needy and unable-to-work", maybe suggesting that many don't really belong in the category. If that's the case I agree with you, those falsely claiming benefits not only drain the financial resources, they also give the genuine claimants an undeserved bad name. Unfortunately, no government in my lifetime has managed to sort one from the other.

The speed with which they legged it to my bars suggested that they were not "unfit for work"......Linford Christie would have been a poor second place

[dam617]

There are reports I could link that show the positive effect EU workers have had on our economy, in fact I'd love to see some reports that back up Tony's claim that most of them are "unwilling to work". However, my comments were based on personal experience more than website links. The last place I worked at had a high proportion of Poles in the workforce. I knew the HR bloke from previous employment, so I asked him why this was. He told me that the big boss preferred them because their work ethic, timekeeping, attendance and co-operation was way better than the locals. He also told me that without their input to increasing production, the place would have closed down a couple of years before. I also had the misfortune to attend Bulwell job centre for a year. Not to claim benefits which my circumstances correctly denied, simply to get a form stamped so I could claim on a mortgage protection policy I had paid into for years. Let's just say that the Jeremy Kyle cast seemed to be regulars there!

I also had the misfortune of attending Bulwell job centre a few years ago. It stank of weed and sweaty tracksuits.
Much like Morrisons up the road - where I've never seen so many wheelchairs and mobo scooters since watching that series about ex-pats in Spain.

[PedroTheFisherman66]

I also had the misfortune of attending Bulwell job centre a few years ago. It stank of weed and sweaty tracksuits.
Much like Morrisons up the road - where I've never seen so many wheelchairs and mobo scooters since watching that series about ex-pats in Spain.

I'm going to say this out loud , why is it most on disabilities seem to be driving 4x4's (or driven around in)
People in this situation near me, do not work and have a top of the range car.
its high time they brought back the old Blue three wheeler cars.
Lets see how many people on disabilities would want to be driving those about.
Those that it's essential to would , others who don't need them but have them because they are entitled to them, would not touch them with a barge pole.
sorry if it offends anyone but that's my honest opinion

[i961pie]

Any civilised system should feed the needy and unable-to-work. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt on this because you used inverted commas for "needy and unable-to-work", maybe suggesting that many don't really belong in the category. If that's the case I agree with you, those falsely claiming benefits not only drain the financial resources, they also give the genuine claimants an undeserved bad name. Unfortunately, no government in my lifetime has managed to sort one from the other.

They daren't because they get accused of being heartless and discriminating against the 'weak and poor.'

[drillerpie]

I live 500 yards from Asda-Walmart here in Mexico......there are an absolute minimum of 20 people EVERY DAY washing trucks, cars, windscreens, juggling in the road, killing live animals for fresh meat hung in roadside trees, offering to carry your bags or park your car...........just in that 500 yards....it ain't for everyone, I get it.....but if you remove the "safety net" of "something for nothing philosophy", then all of a sudden people want to work...it ain't rocket science, they need to eat

You can make a moral case for that kind of opinion, ie if you don't work you don't eat, but on a practical level the kind of inequality you get in societies like that create numerous other problems like crime, corruption and so on.

[drillerpie]

Wage growth is at a minimum in the West, because it is easier to export jobs to a third-world country at $1 per hour than pay $10 per hour in the UK or USA........BMW are building a mega-factory literally 400 yards from my bedroom window here in Mexico......wages here are $10 per DAY maximum for unskilled, $15 per DAY skilled.....it is called Globalisation....Big Business, and Banks, love it

I'd make two points about this, both relating to a degree of incoherence in this kind of argument. Firstly as I said before there's a mindset of free markets, business is good, competition is good (dairy farmers should stop whining and get their act together). Anyone who mentions any kind of state intervention is called a socialist, Marxist or whatever because markets should decide everything, unless we're talking about unskilled labour. Then we should intervene and how! Hooray for Trump's tariffs! Hooray for the minimum wage! If we sign a trade deal with India which will allow their IT workers to come to the UK and compete with British IT workers then that's fine, but no way should our factory workers be exposed to competition from Polish people who turn up on time and work hard! Oh yes and we'll slag socialism off day in day out while getting nostalgic about working in the past when we enjoyed all the gains of post war democratic socialism, thank you very much.

By the way I'm not against the minimum wage, I'm just saying I find this attitude hard to debate with because of its inconsistency.

The second point is that presumably Mexicans are quite happy to have a mega factory opening there, in fact if they had a few more they might not migrate to the US in such large numbers. How can you complain about Mexicans migrating to the US and complain when they are given employment opportunities at home?

[drillerpie]

If your'e a factory or farm owner then yes, who wouldn't take unquestioning labour who'll work all day for less than minimum wage and union, what's one of those?

Brits won't work for slave wages and yet they're villified for not doing so, pay a reasonable, living wage and people will gladly work to improve their lives. Pay **** wages where people need to supplement their income with benefits and they rightly ask questions.

I and EP are lucky to have worked when it was possible to earn good money, even with low skills, times have changed. It was recently revealed that wage growth, in relation to cost of living, is at it's lowest since the Victorian era.

All the Polish people I have ever worked with have been on the same wages as everyone else. I trust you reported the bosses paying the ones you know less than minimum wage to the relevant authorities?

[Bohinen]

All the Polish people I have ever worked with have been on the same wages as everyone else. I trust you reported the bosses paying the ones you know less than minimum wage to the relevant authorities?

It's not quite like that. I suspect you are talking about middle class occupations. I worked in IT, and of course the Pole I worked with earned the same as me when we were at the same level. That doesn't mean the ones 20 miles down the road picking cabbages did. Many employers pay everyone as little as they can get away with, even below minimum wage if they can.

[drillerpie]

It's not quite like that. I suspect you are talking about middle class occupations. I worked in IT, and of course the Pole I worked with earned the same as me when we were at the same level. That doesn't mean the ones 20 miles down the road picking cabbages did. Many employers pay everyone as little as they can get away with, even below minimum wage if they can.

Well that's a question of legality then, I hope you reported the cases you know about to the authorities too.