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Thursday, April 13, 2017

Brexitland: With pay so low for this long, no wonder there’s anger in Sheffield

As he continues his journey around leave-voting areas, Owen Jones sees how poor wages are driving the migration backlash • Brexitland: People can’t find homes. No wonder they were angry • Brexitland: The truth from well-to-do Fareham: this was no working-class uprising Is it any wonder that Britain bubbles away with frustration? Not since Napoleon ruled France has the country suffered such a protracted squeeze in wages. Of the 35 major industrialised OECD countries, only Greece has endured such a steep fall. British workers are still, on average, poorer than they were when the banks plunged the global economy into chaos, and the respite of the last two years is juddering to an end. In February real wages fell once again. And no, this crisis didn’t start under the Tories: in the last half of New Labour’s reign, wages began to stagnate or fall for the bottom half of Britain’s underpaid workforce. Over a decade of decline has left Britain simmering with anger. Related: UK joins Greece at bottom of wage growth league Continue reading...


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