“As the Bank of England said, for every 10% growth in immigration there is a 2% reduction in wages. That bears thinking about.”

Boris Johnson, ITV, 9 June 2016"

"The 10% to 2% ratio, described by the Bank of England, does not show the relationship between changes in the immigration rate and UK average wages, as has been claimed.

Their report was much more specific than this.

The ratio of foreign-born workers to UK-workers affects the wages of the lowest paid

The report suggested that an increase in the ratio of foreign-born workers to UK-born workers in lower-paid service occupations caused a small but significant reduction in the average pay for low paid workers in that region.

It found that a 1.88% reduction in pay for semi-skilled and unskilled service workers would be expected to follow, on average, a 10% increase in the proportion of immigrants working in those jobs in a particular region.

Examples of jobs in this category include child minders, cleaners, shop assistants, call centre staff, bar staff and postal workers.

The reduction in average pay for semi-skilled and unskilled service workers is mainly due to a drop in wages for low-paid workers born in the UK. A small part is because immigrants tend to be paid less than native workers, bringing the average down further.

The Bank of England also found that an increase in the ratio of foreign-born to UK-born workers seemed to have an effect on the average UK wage nationally. This effect was much smaller than the effect found when the report focused on particular groups of occupation.

Whether the immigrant workers had come from inside or outside the EU made very little difference.

This is a relatively small effect

Between 2004-2006 and 2012-2014 the ratio of foreign-born to UK-born workers rose by about 8% in low-skilled and semi-skilled service occupations across the UK as a whole. This was the largest change in any of the four occupational groups classified by the report.

So for a low-skilled or semi-skilled occupation paid £8 per hour, this would work out to a drop of between 1 and 2 pence per hour, each year.

Many issues have an affect on the wages of the lowest paid. Academics commonly list global changes in technology and trade, or national differences in education, attitudes to gender, and union activity as having a much more significant effect than having a higher proportion of immigrants in the workforce."

Interesting that the 9 out of 10 of the UK's richest people are not UK citizens (only the 9th richest, the Duke of Westminster is a UK citizen).

We have now sunk to a depth at which the restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men. [Orwell]

The 'progressive' left are internationalist, they don't really care about the working class. They are as ideological as the bluest richest Tory. They care less about finding workable practical solutions to life over radically changing the structure of society.

Multiculturalism is their baby. They don't care that it's failed for the majority. It's all about how they think you should live and it has very little to do with caring about how you feel about it.....Unless you are an 'repressed minority' of course.

After the Labour membership twice gave them the Labour leadership It's long been predicted how they would do at the polls and now they are just getting what they deserve.

'Who are you and how did you get in here? I'm a locksmith. And, I'm a locksmith.' (Leslie Nielsen)

Basically, for nearly all of the last forty years the centre-right has held sway here and in Germany and in France has flip-flopped between them and centre-left.

You really have no idea have you who is actually to blame for all the perceived ills that you see? The left have had very little power in that time compared to the right.

Seek and ye shall find. The correct answers.

Big chest and massive boobs

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#michaelknows

I am particularly fascinated by Nostramit's predictions and am waiting for the Bladerunner-esqe post apocalyptic vision of hell he predicted for post referendum Britain to become a reality and also waiting for 2021, when according to our sage, the streets of Britain would be filled with blackshirts looking to invoke a racial war, presumably using the Manson family's theory of 'Helter Skelter' as inspiration.

"That was fun and to round off the day, I am off to steal a charity collection box and then desecrate a place of worship.” - Smokey, The Selhurst Arms, 26/02/02

A comma would have been fine.

'Who are you and how did you get in here? I'm a locksmith. And, I'm a locksmith.' (Leslie Nielsen)

After the argument about whether you could start a sentence with 'And'...I thought I'd leave that 'sentence starting' chestnut alone.

I also left the question mark you used for a statement alone.

I'm all for pedantry and don't mind being corrected myself if it can teach something useful.

'Who are you and how did you get in here? I'm a locksmith. And, I'm a locksmith.' (Leslie Nielsen)

You lost that one, i seem to remember. And using a '?' to end a half-statement/half-question sentence is fine as it is too when it is rhetorical.

Big chest and massive boobs

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Debatable, as is much in grammar. Using 'And' to start a sentence still seems like crowbar English to me. Still, I do it myself occasionally so I'm a hypocrite there. I certainly only use pedantry now to make silly put-downs. I know it's pointless and that I probably make just as many mistakes: I try though.

Edited by Stirlingsays (07 May 2017 5.15pm)

'Who are you and how did you get in here? I'm a locksmith. And, I'm a locksmith.' (Leslie Nielsen)

The Shadow Chancellor tells Marr he is not a Marxist but was filmed telling people he is a Marxist!

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"That was fun and to round off the day, I am off to steal a charity collection box and then desecrate a place of worship.” - Smokey, The Selhurst Arms, 26/02/02