Economic reality check reveals the real mess we’re in

“where is the boom?” asks Mr James Anthony (Yorkshire Post, July 4).

Unfortunately, in China and India combined, there is a workforce of some two billion who will work hard for £40 per week.

In Bangladesh and Vietnam, they’ll work for even less. No maternity or paternity pay, no pensions, no NI, no minimum wage, no 28 days paid leave. No nothing. Just work.

The costs of transporting a pair of jeans from Asia to Europe is 30 pence and a flat-screen TV less than £2.

Our manufacturing base is half what it was 20 years ago. Frightening isn’t it?

What do we have? School leavers who can’t be bothered to turn up for work and are incapable of writing, arithmetic and communicating.

An economy that is still borrowing £400m a day to finance the difference between tax receipts and government spending, because we have a coalition too frightened to grasp the nettle and actually do something with the 600,000 non-jobs created in the public sector by that academic genius, Gordon Brown.

A government which refuses to cut “red tape” and regulation and continually make it more difficult to run businesses and employ people.

A Prime Minister who bottled it, when he took up office rather than address the nation to spell out the serious financial situation the country is in.

Does anyone have any idea what state insolvency is?

With the predicted growth of 2.5 per cent now out of the window, eventually to be followed by a gilts strike, we are all likely to find out.

If GDP ticks along at zero, by the time of the next election, our debt will be more than 100 per cent of GDP and this country will be insolvent.

Never mind “where is the boom?” The question has to be “what do we need to do to get out of this situation?”

From: Tim Mickleburgh, Boulevard Avenue, Grimsby.

TERRY Duncan (Yorkshire Post, July 2) trots out the well-oiled belief that the reason immigrants are taking more jobs is that British workers don’t want to do them.

But this is as much of a simplification as the racist view that immigrants are simply taking British jobs.

For the fact is, many posts taken by those from abroad are simply not advertised in the kind of ways that are accessible by the home job seeker. Employers target migrants, for whatever reason.

Also, it is often the case that immigrants are put up in the same accommodation, paying a rent to gang master figures.

If British workers were to take such employment, this would mean them paying two lots of housing costs, and make it not worth their while to do such work.

On top of this, there often is not the transport to get them to places where the work is, especially that in rural areas.

So please don’t criticise the British jobless.