Missing investment
Two nights ago Paxman’s questions to Mrs May exposed effectively how ineffective she had been at the Home Office in dealing with immigration. She could not explain how Conservative policy has completely failed in this area (even to reduce non-european immigrants). So I will explore the possible causes.
As we have near full employment, one must agree with Jonathan Wadsworth at the London School of Economics that there is no statistical impact of immigrants on wages of UK workers. Scottish farmers have claimed that they can’t get local workers for seasonal work, so need immigrants, and in Scotland EU nationals make up 3.4 per cent of population but 4.5 per cent of the workforce. So they are vital and skilled workers.
Now if industry (having benefited from five years of corporation tax concessions) is simply not training local workers, then it’s necessary for the Government to tax industry and spend major sums of money on training.
And if years of austerity have not created a mood of business confidence in the UK, but instead has reduced consumer purchasing power, then perhaps the economy needs government stimulus to take us through the uncertainty which our changing trade relationship with Europe and other countries will create.
Unless government spends a lot of money on skills training and infrastructure it is most unlikely that we will see significant falls in immigration. So in five years’ time Mrs May will be facing the same questions from Paxman with the same lack of answers
ANDREW VASS Corbiehill Place, Edinburgh
The most terrifying epiphany from the recent general election TV debates is acknowledging how much Jeremy Corbyn of all people looks a better prime ministerial prospect than the current incumbent.
He appeared quietly confident with every penetrating question and gave the impression of someone with a set plan to get Britain out of the longest socio-economic imbroglio in living memory.
By contrast, Tinfoil Theresa gave the impression of one of those ghastly sales sharks one encounters in shopping malls, telling you whatever they think you want to hear so long as you’ll sign up to it and anxious you don’t read the small print. It’s harder to think of a more untrustworthy bumbling leader this side of Neil Kinnock.
Never in my most cheeseaddled dreams did the prospect of Corbyn ever being our next PM fill me with relief rather than terror. But a month has proven a long time in politics. Even if the Conservatives win, May cannot remain PM.
MARK BOYLE Linn Park Gardens, Johnstone,
Renfrewshire