The only way to stop small boat crossings is to level up - Yorkshire Post Letters

Attention has recently been drawn by Oxfam to the numbers of millionaires and billionaires created during the pandemic - at the rate of a new one every 30 hours. Such individuals usually acquire their stashes by paying their workers in low-wage economies and selling their products in high-wage economies.

It is the classical transfer of value from peripheral nations to core nations, except that in these cases, the core nation misses out and most of the profits are creamed off by a few individuals.

Historically, peripheral nation workers remained generally in ignorance of the sometimes enormous economic differences involved, but in our modern age where the internet is ubiquitous, the extravagant lifestyles of the Western world are clear to anyone who cares to investigate.

This is the principle reason why, today, so many young ambitious people are prepared to undertake highly hazardous journeys across continents to participate in the action - and who can blame them.

The only long-term way to stop the 'small boats' is to remove the incentive, and that means a genuine and radical levelling-up between the nations of the world.

If that means taxing our billionaires down to sensible levels of income with respect to the real value of their contributions to humanity, and paying their workers what they might expect in this country, then so be it.