Right wing rag banging on about working class and Brexit

[AtW]

That's a massive assumption that there would be a Conservative government.

Well, I reckon Cons would prefer to stay in power for next 4 years because they know they will be out of it for a decade or two.

So, there will be Con Govt for another 4 long years, they would try to make the most of exit.

[Chuck]

And that's the nub of the problem. It's easy to convince people that an immigrant working for less can take a job away from a British person. It's a bit more difficult to explain how immigration means there's more jobs overall, even when the unemployment figures clearly back that up.

That's a very interesting point. We have lots of immigrants, yet we're approaching full employment. Something doesn't seem right.

[Flashman]

We could certainly expect the erosion of employment maternity rights.

We've got some of the best maternity rights in Europe in this country. Far about the EU standard.

From Trade Unionists Against the EU. More extreme right wingers

Equality rights do not come from the EU – TUAEU

What Europhiles don’t want you to know is that, at 52 weeks, Britain has about the best maternity leave in Europe; the statutory minimum under EU law is 14 weeks.

More interestingly a new Maternity Leave Directive first proposed in 2008, raising the minimum leave to 20 weeks, was quietly withdrawn by the European Commission on July 1 2015.

EuroActiv.com says the Commission, under pretext of simplifying EU law under the 2014 REFIT exercise, wanted to kill the draft as an attempt to dismantle women’s rights and gender equality in the EU institutions.

According to the European Women’s Lobby officer Mary Collins: “Rising conservative and religious forces and far right political actors are impacting negatively on women’s rights and are calling into question the very notion of rights – especially sexual and reproductive rights – that were hard fought for by previous generations of women and men”. 3.

[AtW]

Brexit may or may not do a lot of different things, but I doubt it is going to hinder Westminster's ability to pass botched legislation, on things people care about, that only accomplishes part of its purposes whilst generating massive unintended consequences.

Oh for sure there will be lots of red tape from Westminster!

[Platypus]

There will be wholesale attack on working rights, that would cost working class most.

I doubt that - suicide for any party to go in to a general election on that basis.

[Chuck]

Well, I reckon Cons would prefer to stay in power for next 4 years because they know they will be out of it for a decade or two.

So, there will be Con Govt for another 4 long years, they would try to make the most of exit.

Conservative Party will implode. Cameron (probably) and Osborne (certainly) will be forced out, which will force an election.

[VectraMan]

That's a very interesting point. We have lots of immigrants, yet we're approaching full employment. Something doesn't seem right.

Because long term immigration boosts the economy. People talk about "jobs" like there's a fixed number that need to be filled no matter what, but that's not how reality works. Many jobs only exist because there's somebody cheap to fill them; many jobs only exist because British companies can compete internationally by having lower labour costs.

Immigration won't change after Brexit anyway. Especially if the economy declines we're going to need all the immigrants we can get.

[Flashman]

That's a very interesting point. We have lots of immigrants, yet we're approaching full employment. Something doesn't seem right.

That's because of our growing service sector. This has meant there are millions of additional low paid, unskilled jobs to be filled.

With near full employment we should be seeing workers being able to demand higher wages and better terms and conditions. Instead we see no wage rises and unstable casual work.

Why? Because there is an army of migrants willing to do the work at any price.

Without the minimum wage introduced by a British government God knows what some of these jobs would be paying

[Flashman]

I doubt that - suicide for any party to go in to a general election on that basis.

Exactly. Only an unelected Government could do that. But we could never have one of those could we?

[VectraMan]

That's because of our growing service sector. This has meant there are millions of additional low paid, unskilled jobs to be filled.

With near full employment we should be seeing workers being able to demand higher wages and better terms and conditions. Instead we see no wage rises and unstable casual work.

Why? Because there is an army of migrants willing to do the work at any price.

Without the minimum wage introduced by a British government God knows what some of these jobs would be paying

It's interesting how this debate spans traditional political leanings. Flashman is clearly a UKIP voting socialist.

Minimum wage means that no unskilled workers can be undercut by cheaper immigrants. On the other hand it's clearly one of the major draws for immigrants. Slashing our minimum wage could be the most effective way of cutting immigration.