We can't afford to be "West Britons",

The Wasting Mule reports that "More than a quarter of a million workers in Wales are paid less than the living wage, according to a major new report..

Research published by KPMG shows that 261,000 people – nearly one in four (24%) workers – receives less than the amount considered necessary to meet basic living costs.The highest share of people earning less than the living wage were found in Conwy and Powys (both 32%) and Monmouthshire (30%).Across the UK, 5.28 million people – 22% of the workforce – are paid below this rate.The findings come as the Living Wage Foundation has set a new rate of £7.85 per hour

Most I suppose would consider  Monmouthshire to be one of the moat affuent in Wales and this is reflected by the support for the Conservatives in that county.Could it be that low paid workers are less likely to vote?

Commenting on the report, Wales TUC National Officer Julie Cook said: 

“People deserve a fair day’s pay for an honest day’s work."But low pay is blighting the lives of hundreds of thousands of families in Wales. And it’s adding to the deficit because it means more spent on tax credits and less collected in tax.“We have the wrong kind of recovery with the wrong kind of jobs – we need to create far more living wage jobs, with decent hours and permanent contracts."The fact is there are employers out there in Wales who can afford to pay living wages, but aren’t.“It is now time for all responsible employers to commit to adopting this standard, which enables workers to earn just enough to be able to live a decent life.”

Certainly there something wrong with a system which sees large numbers of people in work on some form of benefit.

In reality it means that we are subsidising firms that pay low wages and yet they complain about government interference .

As US Senator Elizabeth Warren puts it

There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody. ... You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for; you hired workers the rest of us paid to educate; you were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn't have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory, and hire someone to protect against this, because of the work the rest of us did. Now look, you built a factory and it turned into something terrific, or a great idea. God bless. Keep a big hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is, you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along.

No body likes politician plagiarising anothers speeches.But has any leading Labour politician even approached this?

We have an opposition party that is supposed to be a socialist party which is so in the grips of big business who can't even approach the rhetoric of an American Senator.

Wales in particular is becoming the poorest region in Europe and as long as we accept the position of West Britons under Westminster parties nearly all in the pockets of big business we not only remain so but the gap will be larger,