Thread by @petermbenglish

The tories claim to be the economically competent.

So why do they give visas to very high earners while deporting/preventing entry of people prepared to work for low wages?
1/

I don't know what happened to tweet 2 which I sent just after tweet 1… Will try again. It will be tweet 3, now.
2 /

That said, it pains me to agree with Johnson, but we have exploited low-paid workers for far too long.

Care and health care workers, pluckers and pickers, cleaners… particularly jobs typically done by women…
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And it's not just wages. It's also conditions.

Zero hour jobs where you have to stay available, only paid when working.

Jobs where you have to wait around, unpaid, for eg customs clearance…
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… Jobs which are physically extremely demanding, like picking many crops.

School support roles (as @gardening_kate points out).
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@gardening_kate People who work hard should be able to live well. On their earnings, without the indignity (as many - not me - see it) of having to rely on benefits.
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@gardening_kate This will mean paying more for goods and services.

We should do so.

We are not entitled to cheap G&S off the back of exploited labour.
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@gardening_kate This will mean higher prices and inflation. I'd guess only temporarily. And it will risk exporting even more work to exploit people in lower wage countries.

But it would genuinely help with reducing inequalities. "Levelling up", if you must.
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@gardening_kate I really hope Johnson means it. I hadn't seen him as a socialist, prepared to go further than the Labour Party folk who opposed raising the minimum wage.

I doubt his ERG/CRG crazies will allow him to do it.
9/

@gardening_kate I doubt Johnson's crazy ERG/CRG members will allow him to do it. Why would they? They benefit far too much from exploiting people (and not just poor people - anybody who isn't stinking rich).

But let's use what he said, regardless of whether he meant it.
10/10

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