The problem is that the people that vote are the people that have done very nicely thank you very much from the government continuing to pump house prices. It would be electoral suicide to do anything to willfully bring house prices back down to a sensible level.
Brexit thread - what happens next
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How much of this growth is due to immigration, though? Immigrants make up a relatively small proportion of the population.
I think these are orthogonal issues. We have issues with housing stemming from Thatcher-era housing policies when our state took the decision to get out of housing, and sold off large swathes of our existing stock. Blair continued this failure and it's was even worse under the coalition. This would have been true with, or without, immigration. But the positive benefits of immigration put us in a better position to deal with the problem; the economic harm of clamping down on immigration would severely impact house building.
As for wages and employment, the evidence shows no negative effect of immigration on either wages or employment levels of the native population. Instead what we've seen is Thatcher-era economic and industrial policy - carried on during the Blair years - undermining the value of work at the lower end. Wages of a hospital porter, for example, declined about 20-25% in real terms between 1979 and 2009 and the out-sourcing of these low level contracts removed the people doing them both from promotional routes upward and the protective effect of sharing a union with higher status employees. Immigration is a convenient scapegoat, not the causal factor, here.
We need to introduce price controls, duty to occupy or rent, and residential ownership rules in order to manage house price growth at sub-inflationary but still positive levels. Obviously, we also need some inflation for this to work!
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There are lots of people who vote but aren't doing well. They aren't poor either.
And how do you think it's going to improve in a post-EU Britain?
It's an excellent article.
So it seems one of the so called 'experts' we should have listened to about brexit has now back tracked and said our economy is not all doom and gloom.
just goes to show people who have a vested interest in the outcome of such votes will tell you whatever they need to sway people one way or another
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...itish-economy-grow-faster-Germany-France.html
P.S i know is a daily fail article but still..
just goes to show people who have a vested interest in the outcome of such votes will tell you whatever they need to sway people one way or another
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...itish-economy-grow-faster-Germany-France.html
P.S i know is a daily fail article but still..
Four very interesting maps of immigration patterns in Europe. Very interesting that India is still the UK's biggest source of immigrants.
Yup, up to the Mail's usual standards I see. You do realise these are the same figures that the IMF was predicting before the referendum?
Indeed. Wonder how many of them are on landed worker visas (i.e. intra-company transfers).
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No doubt all here taking the jobs of honest working class folk, suppressing the wages of the disenfranchised forgotten majority.
Or maybe these are the kind of persons we'll throw open the door to under our new "points based immigration system", whilst shutting Eastern Europeans out, leaving Frank and Dave a free run at ripping people off by running substandard building firms.
On point, +1
Every 10 years another 5 million at current rate of increase. It is not the jobs or housing so much it is do we want the population density it will eventually become.
But nothing to do with article 50 not being invokes until 2017 and maybe even 2018 then?
Its funny that why I always say the majority of experts are not experts, there are only a handful.
FTSE 100 smashes 6,700 and pound breaks $1.31 as Bank of England survey shows 'no clear evidence' of sharp Brexit slowdown
I don't see what difference that makes since it will happen. Companies aren't going to invest in the UK now unless they see a long term rosie post EU future so if they're predicting continued growth then it's increasingly clear that it was just scaremongering. Not to say the IMF figures will be accurate, one thing the last 10 years has taught me is that in reality, economists can't predict ****.
Other figures out the other day showed the UK building industry was already tanking prior to the vote.
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May gave a cracking first prime minister's question time in the Commons just now, she has left the pundits reeling with her humorously aggressive tone and confidence, one even questioned whether someone had slipped something in her tea She gives me confidence that she will either get on with Merkel this afternoon or at least not be intimidated if things turn sour. Well done Theresa! Brexit is looking to be in strong hands.
She gives me confidence that she will either get on with Merkel this afternoon or at least not be intimidated if things turn sour. Well done Theresa! Brexit is looking to be in strong hands.
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