The last time wages got too high was when the trades unions were working on the ‘levelling up’. In strongholds such as car-making and newspapers, it was automation and technology which ultimately broke their hold. And it could see off Boris’s ‘boost pay and level up’ strategy too. Restaurants, especially the fast variety, won’t pay through the nose for long for staff, just as their punters won’t want to pay more for rubber chickens. So the way they’re cooked, ordered and served is already needing less and less jobs. And the levelling back down begins.
“UK slips into recession as economy contracts 0.1% in December”
This week’s big economic and bad election news is that we are, or certainly have been, officially in a recession. You may not have thought you were, or you may have thought you have been for some time, as we and its effects are all different.