From 'The case for mass migration is built on lies', Matthew Lynn, Daily Telegraph, 6 October 2021

My laptop is full of open tabs. I've posted quotations here on my blog from a few articles, to serve me as an index. This article is here.

'Now that we have restricted freedom of movement from the EU, what is happening? Wages are rising rapidly. Average earnings are going up 8 per cent annually, and in trades such as transport or construction by 20 per cent. While this has much to do with the effect of workers returning from furlough, these are still astonishing figures.

'The Labour Party, the main architect of unrestricted immigration, ties itself up in knots over whether to back a £15 minimum wage, deaf to the irony that most companies would kill to find someone willing to work for less than twenty quid an hour right now. If this was a lab experiment, and to some degree it is, the conclusion would be clear. Turning off the flow of workers increases salaries.

'With unlimited access to a young, talented workforce from Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic, British companies became hooked on cheap labour. Why spend hundreds of thousands of pounds automating that supply depot when an agency in Budapest could supply plenty of guys to do the night shift at minimum wage? Who needs to spend money on complex check-in software for a hotel when you can hire a cheerful Portuguese youngster for peanuts? It was great for profits, and also pretty good for skilled professionals who didn’t compete for those jobs. But it was hardly great for productivity.'

'Even worse, we created industries based entirely on cheap imported labour. Britain is the only major developed country where hand car washes have been available everywhere. We produce far more chicken than Germany, although it is a larger country (and not the organic, free-range kind, but the battery, force-fed stuff) using an immigrant labour force. Does that make any sense? Not really. It is tough for the owners of battery chicken factories, but it makes more sense to import birds from the EU than people.'