Long, long indeed have opponents of the Tory-Lib Dem Government expressed concern about their desire to privatise everything that moves: large swathes of the NHS out to tender, the Royal Mail sold off at bargain basement prices, even student debt put up for sale and now the highly profitable state run East Coast rail company is up for grabs.
There is a striking correlation between funders of the Government parties, especially the Tories, and the people/companies benefiting from this great sell-off. But what to do when, literally, there is NOTHING LEFT to sell. After all, even notionally state-owned assets are leased-out and when they are even trying to flog off the RAF's fuel supply line, this ideological regime must fear that it is reaching the limits of its asset stripping.
So, what is left indeed?
Why people of course! Now, as covered by yesterday's post, robots may get the better of us humans in due course as they don't need paying, other than a quick recharge in the wall socket and a touch of WD40 on cold mornings -but what if you make unemployed people pick fruit for really, really low wages? Or maybe none at all - call it training perhaps? The robots can't best that, at least not yet; can they?
So we have had supermarkets taking on unpaid trainees who have to stack shelves and clean floors at nil cost to the company - rather they have to do it to keep their benefits. Once their "training" is up, with their magnificently un-enhanced skills, do they get a job offer? Not at all - they are simply replaced by more "trainees".
What a wheeze, the taxpayer paying for free labour for big firms that avoid their tax.
But now, it gets worse: at least until now, the Government has, however dubiously, claimed this is all for the public good. Today, however, the level of rank self-interest and plundering of the state by these chancers was exposed just a tad more than maybe even Dodgy Dave would have liked.
The Farms Minister, George Eustice, commenting on the end of a scheme to recruit temporary migrant workers for seasonal agricultural work in the UK, was asked about how to replace the now barred workers. Simple, he declared - make benefits claimants do the work instead. Get them to pick fruit.
And Mr Eustice should know. After all, he and his family own...a fruit farm. No conflict of interest there; nothing self-serving at all. Is there?
Next week: "Indentured service; why it's not so bad after all." "12 years a Slave: good personal development opportunity."
There is a striking correlation between funders of the Government parties, especially the Tories, and the people/companies benefiting from this great sell-off. But what to do when, literally, there is NOTHING LEFT to sell. After all, even notionally state-owned assets are leased-out and when they are even trying to flog off the RAF's fuel supply line, this ideological regime must fear that it is reaching the limits of its asset stripping.
So, what is left indeed?
Why people of course! Now, as covered by yesterday's post, robots may get the better of us humans in due course as they don't need paying, other than a quick recharge in the wall socket and a touch of WD40 on cold mornings -but what if you make unemployed people pick fruit for really, really low wages? Or maybe none at all - call it training perhaps? The robots can't best that, at least not yet; can they?
So we have had supermarkets taking on unpaid trainees who have to stack shelves and clean floors at nil cost to the company - rather they have to do it to keep their benefits. Once their "training" is up, with their magnificently un-enhanced skills, do they get a job offer? Not at all - they are simply replaced by more "trainees".
What a wheeze, the taxpayer paying for free labour for big firms that avoid their tax.
But now, it gets worse: at least until now, the Government has, however dubiously, claimed this is all for the public good. Today, however, the level of rank self-interest and plundering of the state by these chancers was exposed just a tad more than maybe even Dodgy Dave would have liked.
The Farms Minister, George Eustice, commenting on the end of a scheme to recruit temporary migrant workers for seasonal agricultural work in the UK, was asked about how to replace the now barred workers. Simple, he declared - make benefits claimants do the work instead. Get them to pick fruit.
And Mr Eustice should know. After all, he and his family own...a fruit farm. No conflict of interest there; nothing self-serving at all. Is there?
Next week: "Indentured service; why it's not so bad after all." "12 years a Slave: good personal development opportunity."
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