To clarify

I feel that I may have given the implication that the current woes of British workers is down to some inherent laziness. This is not the crux of the argument. I am not blaming the British personally, just the system that has produced an expectation within the workplace that is unrealistic. I’m sorry but if you work in manufacturing you are competing directly with Far-Eastern people who will work longer and harder for less.

So the expectation of excellent working conditions and a good wage are sadly unrealistic, hence the collapse of Western European and American manufacturing in the face of outsourcing.

I worked in a factory and would be frustrated by lack of incentive to work. People in this country have it very good if you consider the global community as a whole. It is impossible to appreciate economics as a whole without being relative. We are competing with cheaper more streamlined economies and only by closing markets – which would shatter investment and exports – can we ever avoid this reality.

Anyone who reads my posts will know my political standpoint. I am very left-wing and I believe passionately about pooling our common resources, but sadly this is not our political reality.

I apologise if I may have been misconstrued as criticising British workers personally; I assure you this is not my standpoint. They have proven historically they are hard working and innovative in the right economic climate.

I want good pay. British people deserve good pay, good conditions, and ample holidays. But this is not realistic if we expect to compete directly the Far-East.

The Labour government does provide various schemes that enrich the standards of working families (tax credits, child support) but these are disincentives that curb competition in the labour market, and are at a cost to the economy in general. This is not vast amounts of money, but they are a cost that their economic contribution does not warrant in this time of globalisation. This is the problem; there is not the value in general manufacturing for it to be a viable economic choice for a modern economy.

Where this leaves the working classes of this country is not clear…..

But that is not the question.