Flip Chart Fairy Tales

Not long ago the papers were complaining about the impact of large scale immigration from Eastern Europe. Now, there are fears that the Poles and others are heading for home as the exchange rate and the UK’s economy make working here less attractive. Suddenly managers who employed large numbers of Eastern Europeans are in a panic.

What if they all go home? Will we have to start employing local people again? Will British people work as hard for the same wages as the Poles? Hell, we might even have to start training people again!

Well it’s not as if we haven’t been warned. This was always going to happen. The Eastern Europeans didn’t come here because they liked the weather or because they were fleeing oppression. They came because there were plenty of jobs that paid more than those at home. Now their economy has improved, most will go home, unless they can find other EU countries that are still paying significantly higher wages.

The mass exodus of the Poles was always a near certainty. Businesses that did not plan for it are just as guilty of negligence as the government that failed to prepare for the East European influx four years ago.