The archbishop of York, John Sentamu, has condemned the low wages of millions of Britons as a "national scandal", saying businesses have ignored a moral duty to ensure that all employees are paid enough to live on.
In an outspoken intervention that will reignite tensions between church leaders and the government, Sentamu accuses those in power of offering only "warm words" and "sticking plaster" solutions to a problem that is having "devastating" effects on people's lives.
His decision to plunge into the heart of a policy debate that is bound to take centre stage at the next election will be seen as highly controversial. But in his article Sentamu shows his frustration at the failings of the political class to act, and his sense of moral obligation to step in. Read more: The Guardian
Well said that man. Our wage slave economy is a national scandal and the worst part of it is that it was a Labour government which helped create it.
Prior to the Black Death which swept across England in the year 1348 much of the population of England lived in serfdom with many people surviving as little more than slaves. However, following the horror of the plague which led to a population reduction of between a third to a half of pre-plague levels things started to improve drastically for those who had previously lived in serfdom but who had survived the plague. Suddenly these people were in great demand as labour shortages began to bite. Crops still had to be sown and harvested and livestock still had to be tended to, but the big difference now was; the lord of the manor could no longer dictate events. If his Lordship wanted you to tend to his crops, you could negotiate a fee and if that fee was not sufficient you could offer your services elsewhere where you would soon be offered more because the ruling elite had no choice. They either paid you or others a decent living wage or they allowed their crops to perish in the fields. In short, the labour shortages brought about by the plague freed the masses from economic bondage as the elite were now forced to the negotiating table.
So in merry old England things were looking up as far as the workforce was concerned. Of course the daily reality of life was one of constant struggle, but the difference now was, was that the struggle lead to rewards to the struggler rather than the lord of the manor.
The centuries passed by and as the Industrial Revolution arrived a new kind of serfdom was introduced. People were no longer tied to the land and owned the lord of the manor. In this new variant of serfdom and particularly in this part of the world workers now belonged to mill and colliery owners and their lot in life was every bit as grim as their fourteenth century counterparts.
Things in this period had gotten so bad that necessity brought about change and thanks to the heroic deeds of the nineteenth century Chartists, trades unionists and others selfless individuals the workers were once again freed from serfdom.
Throughout the twentieth century workers still faced significant challenges such as two world wars and and near economic collapse during the great depression, but they could still depend on a fair days pay for a fair days work.
In 1979 Margaret Thatcher was elected as Prime Minister and her government set out on a wicked path of de-industrialisation which particularly hurt the manufacturing centres of the Midlands, the NW, the NE and Scotland. Centuries of industrial know how and expertise was consigned to the scrap heap as industry was transferred overseas and Britain was transformed from a manufacturing based economy to a service led economy. The economic heart of this new Britain was to be London and the south east of England and the former industrial heartlands were either laid to waste or transformed into warehousing, retail developments or light industrial units. During this transitional period Britain managed to remain solvent due in no small part to the North Sea oil and gas bonanza which lead to near self sufficiency on the energy front and amazingly wages for those able to find meaningful employment still remained reasonable.
By the mid 1990's Thatcher was gone and the Conservative government of the day were embroiled in sleaze scandals and the electorate demanded change, cue the arrival the smiling and undoubtedly charming new leader of the Labour Party, Tony Blair.
The rest of course is history. Blair led Labour to a landslide victory in 1997 and the Labour Party remained in power until 2010. During this period the social make-up and entire fabric of this nation was transformed even beyond the worst nightmares of those who predicted disaster under 'New Labour'.
Putting aside the illegal wars, constant surveillance, PFI, loss of personal freedoms and the raft of new laws introduced which could turn near enough anyone into a criminal (Roy West?) what did the Labour government do which really damaged this country and the working class in particular for ever more? You already know the answer! They flooded the country, literally flooded the country with economic migrants which massively bloated the labour market and reintroduced serfdom to these shores.
The Labour Party are responsible for the total betrayal of the working class in Britain. They have transformed Britain into a low wage sweat shop economy where employers can hire and fire at will safe in the knowledge that they will face no legal come back thanks to temporary employment contracts. Employers, particularly Labour's large donors have benefited enormously from this low wage sweat shop system because as any employer knows, your largest monthly outgoing is usually your wages bill and when large scale employers such as supermarkets can pay their staff just above the minimum wage they are laughing all the way to the bank safe in the knowledge that if their staff rebel and demand more, they can simply fire them and replace them with new workers from the vast and bloated number of migrants seeking work and who are prepared to work for low wages.
If only the heroic founders of the 19th century Labour Movement could come back and survey the scene of devastation wrought by the criminalistic chancers of the current and recent Labour Party I wonder what they would make of it all? Tameside Citizen
25 comments:
Plenty of truth in that article naming Labour "the working class party".
Well here`s another latest betrayal of Labour Politicians burying or eradicating the facts to maintain their power.
No doubt about it they are absolute dollop of shit.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2371938/How-Shadow-Health-Secretarys-staff-editing-Wikipedia-remove-negative-references-role-NHS-scandal.html
How Shadow Health Secretary's staff have been editing Wikipedia to remove 'negative references' to his role in NHS scandal
Staff member deleted accusations of Andy Burnham 'ignoring and suppressing information linked to appalling standards of care' at Mid Staffs.
Don`t tell me Tameside MP A Gwynne
the right hand man for Andy Burnham didn't know of this devious scam,its right up his street.
Labour knows every method to deceive,manipulative and lie,which makes them what ????
DM Reader Comment
As an authorised editor on Wikipedia,
have been doing this for years as a matter of policy! How do I know? Just trace the IP addresses of the Editors that have made the changes! Don't believe me? ~ I have the records to prove it.
- Harendra Mukerji , Chelmsford
TC, that's a brilliant summing up of how the British working man has been shafted for centuries by land owners, capitalists and politicians.
If only Keir Hardie could see his Labour Party now.
If anyone thinks working class wages have dropped substantially since 1997 then they need a serious reality check. The real problem is the cost of the basics for keeping body and soul together. Working couples who can't qualify for a skyhigh mortgage can instead opt to be fleeced each month by landlords taking generous advantage of our free trade captialist society.
Alternatively (if you get in before third worlders), you might acquire social housing. Only problem being working class estates have degenerated so much that no-one with standards would entertain raising a family on them, unlike in the 50s and 60s when the quality of people was generally more agreeable. Ultimately I'm afraid, the whole fabric of our society is well and truly -ed, and all we as individuals can do is position ourselves as best within it as possible.
An excellent piece TC but not enough emphasis on the utterly treacherous and appalling betrayal of the British worker by the trade unions under the last Labour regime. They sat back in total silence and inaction as the cheap labour flood was imported.
I work in the public transport industry where 15 years ago the management were advertising in prisons and homeless shelters so desperate were they for staff, and this in an industry where we work regularly with the public, including children. The bosses were also FORCED by these circumstances to pay a somewhere near credible wage for the job. Now there's an inexhaustible supply of cheap, never complaining foreign labour often living cheek by jowel in overcrowded conditions and sending a large part of their money home. Every pound they send is of course worth many times that in their countries of origin.
It's like a return of the worst conditions of the mid-Victorian era. I spoke to a driver from another company the other day, his rate of pay? £6.31, the minimum wage, we were earning more than that 20 years ago when the cost of living was massively lower. The plan by the pathologically greedy vermin who run an increasing number of companies is to make it not the minimum wage, but THE wage. And then to systematically reduce it or delay and minimise any increases.
This is an ideal time for the re-introduction of a REAL NON-POLITICAL trade union system and a mass clear out of the leftie, Marxist cranks who now dominate the upper echelons of the unions who are interested only in pursuing their own political agendas and power and care little or nothing for the workers whose rights and welfare they exist to uphold.
@ Anonymous 23:15, I suggest you ask any working class people what they are earning now compared to even a few years ago. Pay rates have plummeted in virtually all industries, that's the REALITY. This plus the massive increases in the cost of living have vastly reduced disposable income levels.
@ Anonymous 23:15, 'position ourselves as best witin it as possible'.
The philosophy of craven, insular defeatism amongst individuals is what the powers that be want. It creates a disunity, selfishness and ultimately lack of self-respect that is ideal for their purposes.
Daily Mail 22-7-2013
These bloody parasites should be culled.
Two-faced Labour councillors across the country are trying to boost their own bank accounts at taxpayers’ expense while at the same time whingeing about cuts to public services.
In a deeply hypocritical move, I can reveal that they are fighting to stop Communities Secretary Eric Pickles scrapping their gold-plated pensions.
Introduced by the Blair government a decade ago during the economic good times, these include a lump sum at retirement age, an early ‘retirement’ deal if they are voted out of office and life insurance for any councillor’s spouse.
This largesse is available even though payments to councillors have soared by 150 per cent in the past five years and now cost more than £200 million a year.
The greed of the Local Government Association Labour Group is exposed in a submission it has sent to Mr Pickles’s government department. It says: ‘Members requested the removal of the phrase ‘taxpayer-funded’ which implies that councillors don’t contribute to their pension.’
But the truth is that taxpayers do contribute.
The Labour group is considering a legal challenge to the Pickles Plan, at taxpayers’ expense of course!
It concludes that it will ‘rigorously defend the continuation of current pension arrangements.’
How things have changed — much for the worse — since 1998, before which councillors used to do the job with no pay or pensions but out of a sense of civic duty.
This should be headlines in the Advertiser.
Rambo Ready
We have no unique contract with 'British' workers. Things have moved on since the Victorian era and we now live in a global economy and our mission is global. We are an international movement and we do not recognise national borders where workers rights are concerned. We represent all workers and will continue to do so until justice is achieved for every worker.
Unions represent the workers who pay their subscriptions, no-one else. There is no mission apart from a private Marxist agenda pursued by the increasingly out of touch upper echelons of many unions. They proved under the last Labour government they care little or nothing for the principle of maintaining decent pay and conditions for workers, evidenced by plummeting wage levels and significantly worsened working conditions directly caused by Labour's mass immigration policy.
@anon 1204
well if you've any bright ideas let's hear them....
http://strongerunions.org/2013/06/19/take-action-this-friday-in-solidarity-with-turkish-unions/
Care home worker Goulden, of Edge Lane, Droylsden, was found guilty of dangerous driving, driving without insurance and failing to provide a breath specimen and was given a 12- month sentence suspended, for 15 months, with a three-month curfew monitored by an electronic tag. Her licence has been endorsed and she is banned from driving for 18 months.
Well well care home worker and a Trainee Nurse,watch out Tameside Hospital we are off again.
Thisis like a crucifix in the face to the liberals and race hustlers.
Left leaning shop steward said we do not recognise national borders where workers rights are concerned
What a load of tosh what about in South Africa,India,Pakistan,where kids are used as slave labour.
Are you certain you don`t buy goods from these area`s of the world or are you a rich pickings Labour supporter who has no qualms
how your Councillors are stripping the assets of the working classes.
I would have thought all Union members would be ashamed at how Councillors and others in Unite are constantly stoking up the gravy train for themselves.
Another Royal for us to lavish money on.
Not sure what`s worse lavishing money on Councillors partners and wives who would not be Councillors only for their
husbands being in the Council Mafia,or paying for the Royal extended family.
@ Anonymous 18:26, the first idea is, don't promote or propose insular, selfish defeatism as a solution.
If enough people had had the courage of their convictions and taken the opportunity to get behind a Nationalist party a few years back it would have shifted things in a different direction, but they allowed the media induced fear of being stigmatised to influence them.
Another opportunity to demonstrate that support via the ballot box, possibly through UKIP, may well come in the next few years. British people had better take that chance as it may be the last one they get.
I was betting on the new royal baby being black.
"well if you've any bright ideas let's hear them...."
"the first idea is, don't promote or propose insular, selfish defeatism as a solution.
If enough people had had the courage of their convictions and taken the opportunity to get behind a Nationalist party a few years back it would have shifted things in a different direction, but they allowed the media induced fear of being stigmatised to influence them.
Another opportunity to demonstrate that support via the ballot box, possibly through UKIP, may well come in the next few years. British people had better take that chance as it may be the last one they get."
That'd be no then.
@ Anonymous 01:39, No, it'd be yes.
Vote for the least worst Nationalist alternative and in the meantime don't promote or propose craven, insular defeatism. Mass voter rebellion against the three party clique is one of the few things they're terrified of.
Temporary foreign workers flood into Canada as youth can’t find work: Conference Board asks why.
Group looks at foreign temps
The Conference Board of Canada can’t fully answer the question, but it does wonder why Canada is importing so many temporary foreign workers when its own young people can’t find jobs.
In the final piece of a three-part look at the post-crisis labour market, the group cites the fact that the number of temps from outside the country reached almost 340,000 by December of last year, up from 150,000 in 2006.
This, as Canada’s unemployment rate continued to climb, particularly among young people.
The jobless rate stood at 7.1 per cent last December, with some 1.4 million Canadians out of work. Unemployment was far high for the country’s youth, at 14.1 per cent, with more than 400,000 young people without jobs.
Today, the national unemployment rate is still 7.1 per cent. For young people, it has dipped just slightly, to 13.8 per cent, with almost 398,000 kids looking for work.
“Canadian youth are struggling to secure employment,” Pedro Atunes, the Conference Board’s director of forecasting and analysis, and senior economist Alicia Macdonald wrote in their latest report.
“This, justifiably, raises the question: if the unemployment rate remains relatively high and so many young and able Canadians are unable to find work, why are still bringing in so many people under the TFW program?”
Craven? Can you tell me what courage there is in trudling down to the polling station to vote for a pc 'nationalist' party?
More courage than the itinerant masses can muster it seems.
@ Anonymous 18:36, No courage whatsoever that's why I didn't say there was. I said, 'Vote for the least worst Nationalist alternative AND (i.e a separate idea) in the meantime don't promote craven, insular defeatism' as a way to deal with the destruction of our country and its social fabric on blogs etc.
@ Different formerly White country, it's the same mentality as shipping in negroes to work plantations. Why pay people a living wage when you can import cheap foreign labour that regards living in a brick shed with ten other people as relative paradise.
Globalised Capitalism now exists only to enrich a miniscule proportion of the people and increasingly props itself up by using whatever methods it's allowed to get away with wherever it's allowed to get away with them.
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