The Bremainer Elite! - Jeremy Corbyn

[AtW]

If you can get a job, according to various academic studies and the BoE, the greatest impacts of immigration on wage compression are experienced by those in the lower quantiles of the income distribution

That's what minimum wage is for, or what they now call "living wage" - that evens the playing field, and btw Tories were foaming at the mouth trying to prevent it from being introduced.

[darmstadt]

If you can get a job, according to various academic studies and the BoE, the greatest impacts of immigration on wage compression are experienced by those in the lower quantiles of the income distribution. They are also more likely to be living in areas with much higher immigration than average and, therefore, competing for public services. Or you could just listen to what working class voters are saying (see above). Obviously, there are other critical factors too, such as the demise of manufacturing jobs and their replacement (or not) with services jobs (much less skilled and less well paid), as well as misguided gov't policy over decades (failing to invest in public services in areas that experience high immigration), but Labour are part of that too. Labour MPs mostly dismiss immigration as a significant factor and, as such, they no longer represent their constituents (that only ~10 are for Leave says it all).

I'm sorry, but what you're writing does not fit in with the Brexit policy: http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/3be49...#axzz4BZxoxyvO

Britain has had enough of experts, says Gove

[jamesbrown]

that evens the playing field

It doesn't, not nearly. Putting aside the relationship between the level of the minimum wage, employment and employment benefits, it simply transfers the wage compression to an artificial level, hence the so-called "maximum wage". Divide that by the average house price and I don't think you could store that fraction in a double precision float with sufficient precision.

[jamesbrown]

I'm sorry, but what you're writing does not fit in with the Brexit policy: Britain has had enough of experts, says Gove - FT.com

What's the "Bremain policy" and which one of Gidiot or Korbyn is dictating it?

[darmstadt]

What's the "Bremain policy" and which one of Gidiot or Korbyn is dictating it?

I don't know who Gidiot or Korbyn are, are they imaginary right wing press figures? As far as I know, a lot of experts have given their opinion and I'm more of a mind to listen to them than a journalist or a member of a contractor's forum...

[AtW]

It doesn't, not nearly.

It does deal with cheap immigrants piling into UK and undercutting low paid labour workers on a systemic level.

"Living wage" is going to get up pretty rapidly to £9.20 by 2020, obviously it's not enough to buy decent house, but even people on £100k household income will struggle to get one.

[DodgyAgent]

It does deal with cheap immigrants piling into UK and undercutting low paid labour workers on a systemic level.

"Living wage" is going to get up pretty rapidly to £9.20 by 2020, obviously it's not enough to buy decent house, but even people on £100k household income will struggle to get one.

Why not make it £20 per hour. More chance people can buy houses then.

[AtW]

Why not make it £20 per hour. More chance people can buy houses then.

If you make too high then it will remove incentive to keep getting better, any job in UK should pay enough to have ok but not great living, house prices should be tackled separetly

[jamesbrown]

I don't know who Gidiot or Korbyn are, are they imaginary right wing press figures? As far as I know, a lot of experts have given their opinion and I'm more of a mind to listen to them than a journalist or a member of a contractor's forum...

You're either being very facetious or you're very detached from this debate in the UK. Gidiot = Osborne. My point is that Bremain covers an enormous range of political views, from the right to the left, so it's entirely pointless to talk about the "Brexit policy" or the "Bremain policy". Whether Brexit or Bremain, the policy consequences will be dealt with by our MPs, of whom the vast majority support Bremain.

By all means, feel free to keep listening to the experts (I'm an expert, by the way ), but one of the problems with Labour is that they're talking to themselves, not their constituents.

[jamesbrown]

It does deal with cheap immigrants piling into UK and undercutting low paid labour workers on a systemic level.

"Living wage" is going to get up pretty rapidly to £9.20 by 2020, obviously it's not enough to buy decent house, but even people on £100k household income will struggle to get one.

First, the minimum wage is very poorly enforced (by successive governments). Consequently, there is a very large black market for illegal labour, below minimum wage. Second, raising the minimum wage will act as a massive pull to low-skilled EU workers, and will prevent wage acceleration above the level of the minimum wage. The systemic undercutting of workers (as identified by Labour) is a shorthand to the black-market element, and this is why they focus on wage compression as a problem of failed policy/enforcement. They are partly correct. They are also partly incorrect, because they completely ignore the immigration dimension of wage compression. The longer they ignore it, the more their core support will ebb to UKIP.