Tory Conference and Brexit

The Tory Party conference this week came up with two blockbuster proposals to go along with the implementation of Brexit. 

The first of these proposals was to introduce legislation that would ensure that workers are entitled to keep all of the tips given to them. The second was that following Brexit, they will organise a Festival of Britain type event, as a Festival of Brexit. The conference also showed that Theresa May is only the Tory party leader in name only; the real Tory party leader is Boris Johnson. As soon as Theresa May has taken the blame for pushing through Brexit, she will be given the push so that Bojo can take over. Given the Brextremist measures that a Bojo led government will push through, the two proposals above will take on considerable significance. 

At the moment Bojo just raises money by playing tennis with friends of Putin, whilst the Russian oligarchs that surround Putin, and ferret away their ill-gotten gains in London property, and the various UK provided tax havens, provide large amounts of funding for the Tory Party. After Brexit, a Bojo led government will be free to implement their long cherished plans to have a bonfire of regulations, and scrapping of workers rights, so as to turn Britain into a 21st century version of Batista's Cub of the 1950's. The Tories friends amongst the world's dictators, or strong and stable leaders as the Tories prefer to call them, such as Putin, Duterte, Orban, Netanyahu, Erdogan, and the corrupt regimes that surround them, complete with all of the dirty money, looking to get laundered, will be free to rush into Britain. 

As the Tories complete the job of dismantling what remains of British manufacturing, along with agriculture, begun by Thatcher in the 1980's, these industries, servicing the foreign oligarchs and criminals will become the backbone of the British economy. With the scrapping of workers rights that the Brextremists long to push through after Brexit, as wages crater, being able to hold on to tips will be a vital means of workers being able at least to subsist, as they doff their caps on their way to service their betters. For workers in the new restaurants that spring up to meet the needs of the various Mafiosi from the world's crime empires, and corrupt regimes, tips will form a large part of their incomes, as also for those working in the associated casino's, and high class brothels. 

The other policy announcement to hold a Festival of Brexit will also be significant. Already, we know that many multinational companies will be pulling out of Britain as a result of Brexit. The Festival will be a useful means of workers trying to sign up to be able to follow those companies to the EU countries into which they relocate. That may not be much use for British workers as the abolition of the right of free movement, will mean that UK workers will no longer be able to move to Europe to take up jobs, but it will be useful for all those EU workers currently living in Britain, who will be only to keen to get out of a Britain that is quickly sinking. 

There seems to be a total delusion on the part of some Brextremists that shutting the door on the EU, and on EU migrants will somehow result in British wages rising. Its clear it won't. If we take an industry like horticulture, and the associated food packaging industry, if they can no longer get the EU migrant labour they require, they will simply move their operations to where they can get that labour, e.g. in Romania, Bulgaria and so on. That will actually benefit workers in those countries, not Britain, and all of the associated economic activity, such as spending in local shops, will then take place in Europe, not in Britain. 

Of course, there are some jobs where that isn't possible. All those taking up precarious jobs in the service industries meeting the needs of all those foreign oligarchs, for example, but rather than their wages rising, the amount of surplus labour available as UK manufacturing gets decimated, as a result of Brexit, will ensure that their wages fall, which is why the ability to rely on tips will become increasingly important to them. The same is true for all those employed in the low paid jobs in social care. But, even if wages are not pushed down by such a surplus of labour, as the economy sinks, the exodus of foreign workers will not cause wages to rise. Instead, for any work that cannot be done elsewhere, firms will seek to introduce labour-saving machines and technology, rather than pay higher wages to workers. 

And, if wages were to rise in any particular such industry, the immediate effect would be to cause the cost of providing that service to rise. It would mean workers having to find more in taxes etc. to cover the increased cost of social care and so on. Where such services are provided by private companies, they would only do so, if they were able to make at least the average rate of profit. So, they would put up their prices. The net effect of that would be to reduce the rate of profit in the economy, reducing the potential for growth. 

Still rather like those wartime exhibitions, such a Festival of Brexit would be able to have host of stalls, so that workers could once more learn how to make do and mend, as they did during wartime. As food rationing came in following Brexit, workers could learn how to use some of their free time, whilst on the dole, to be able to make jam, to knit, and to use their second hand clothes to make them last longer, or to patch worn out clothes. At least the fashion for worn out jeans would come in handy, as it would cover necessity.