| Topic: | Re:Re:Re:Reply | |
| Posted by: | Ed Robinson | |
| Date/Time: | 27/07/24 23:17:00 |
| @Sue, Unfortunately the previous Labour government gave up on them and decided it was quicker & easier just to import more people. It papered over the cracks while the economy was good but has left us saddled with very high taxation. COVID as you say made things worse. Ultimately the main parties do not want to admit past mistakes and there are still those that think importing large numbers of people without tackling the existing high levels of economic inactivity is the answer. From the article: "When I became First minister of Wales in 2000, I saw the startling statistics on long-term Sickness and Disability dependence: 14 per cent of working age Welsh adults were on it. That figure rose to an astonishing 25 per cent in Blaenau Gwent and Merthyr. We got the Welsh figure down to 12 per cent by 2005, by which time our Welfare to Work programmes were undermined by Eastern European immigration." |