Caribbean workers could cash in on our election result

BY Friday we will – we hope – know who is going to govern us for the next few years, providing that it is not going to be a hung Parliament.

That would result in considerable uncertainty, the last thing that businesses need.

But the election outcome is being closely watched by governments throughout Europe and in the Americas.

I was in the Caribbean recently and was amazed that some of the island nations (particularly Barbados and Jamaica) are hoping that once we have left

‘the club’, there could be opportunities for their surplus labour to be sent to the UK to fill gaps left by Europeans returning home.

The high season for tourists in the Caribbean is from midNovember through to March, and the thinking is that if there was work to be had in the UK from April until the end of October, this would dovetail very nicely for British and Caribbean requirements.

The unemployment level in Barbados is 11.9 per cent. Jamaica is not much better, at 9.45 per cent, so jobs in Britain at the relatively high minimum wage compared with local rates would be attractive for many of those currently out of work.

Some will already have relatives working in the UK, so housing may not be a problem.

There would be no language problem and as a spin-off, airlines to the region would see a helpful increase in trade.

Such arrangements would be greatly welcomed by Caribbean countries who without exception have severe financial problems, not helped by a succession of fierce hurricanes that have proved extremely costly.

Barbados is under the close control of the IMF and anything that will bring in foreign exchange and reduce unemployment rates would be very welcome.

The Caribbean is badly in need of a cash injection and opportunities in Great Britain would go some way to help in stabilising the sunshine economies.

This week may well provide the answer it is hoping for.

Russell Luckock is chairman of Birmingham pressings firm

AE Harris