shop - spend - save the economy

What about those of us who don’t have the money to shop and spend ? The ones that the government left behind while they were “saving” businesses ?

Exactly, Gillybob. If everyone was paid an amount commensurate with todays cost of living then there'd be no need for poverty of any kind and neither would the economy suffer. The government have got it all wrong.

I say this because I read that some poor beggars working in a factory in this country were receiving £4 an hour !! Slavery ??
How disgusting is that. ? This is 2020 and we have those in government telling people to spend spend . What ?

Slavery is no longer consigned to the history books I'm afraid and those statues should have stayed put as a reminder to the general public that it still exits !!

Stinks of double-standards somehow.

It is illegal to pay only £4 per hour. That's nothing to do with the government only to do with criminal employers.
I'm sorry that gillybob's business is one of those that fell through the various safety nets. SiL' s been flat out trying to work his way through the maze of grants and loans and keeping his business going and staff employed.
My friend was just saying this week that we're the lucky ones. We're retired and used to our fixed pension income and have saved over the past few months due to not being able to get out and buy much beyond groceries. Obviously we've been frittering cash before now! Those missed coffees and lunches out have added up.
There were queues for all the shops at our local shopping centre this morning. Some people must want to spend spend spend.

It is to do with the government because the government is responsible for enforcing the law.

How do the government know if a company is underpaying their staff?
Big brother isn't here yet!

Jane 10, I made a mistake, it's £3.50 an hour and it's a clothing factory in Leicester which has made news in the Mail.

I heard on LBC yesterday there was a man paid £20 cash in hand for working from 10 am to 10 pm. I think, but I am not sure he was allowed to take as much food as he wanted/needed. He was living in some squalid house with around 15 others in the same situation.

It is to do with the (local) government jane. As I said on another thread, there are lots of sweatshops In Leicester that the 'people' knew were there but nothing was done.

Jane10
Evidence was presented to the Select Committee in 2018 proving that 1,000s of textile workers were/are being underpaid. The government dismissed all the evidence ?

What are they expected to do? If the factory owners have broken the law its a police job. Where are the unions?

Surely it would be H&S, Environmental Health, and other statutory bodies who would take action? If there was political will, there would be a way.

Don’t worry everyone, the government’s thinking about paying us £500 to go out to restaurants and shops to help these businesses and hopefully develop everyone’s herd immunity
www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/politics/2020/jul/05/sunak-considers-500-vouchers-for-all-uk-adults-to-spend-in-covid-hit-firms

I don't understand economics. But surely it would be better not to shop and spend therefore saving the environment.

I don't buy clothes, I don't drink and I don't eat out. No good to me.

LadyBella, At the beginning of the year I was sitting in an outpatients waiting room with DH reading a magazine article about how we could take steps to avoid unnecessary plastic in our supermarket shopping. It was entitled, 'Caring for the Environment.' I cast my eyes down the list thinking, Yep! We do all that.

Fast forward three months and our deliveries were arriving in oceans of plastic. Having sat up until midnight on numerous occasions to book a slot, all I cared about was getting the delivery.

It's a topsy turvy world in more than one way at the moment.

The sweat shops where people were being illegally underpaid are in Leicester, where by a strange coincidence, the infection rate is unusually high. I would assume that most of the people working in these ghastly places are migrant women with insufficient English language skills to do anything about it, even assuming they knew where to go and who to report it to.

Not just migrant women, gill but men too. And mostly illegal immigrants who daren't report it.

The authorities on the ground must have known and did nothing.

Some of the food processing factories have shown up appalling conditions for the migrant workers. There have been outbreaks of coronavirus in three of the factories in Wales.

They live twelve or more to a small house and bed hop as some work days while others work nights.

Some of the workers were afraid to stay at home if they were ill so the virus was rife amongst them.

Exactly kittylester, silent people without a voice. I read that Boohoo are one of the biggest customers of these illegal sweat shops, perhaps unknowingly of course. Because the clothing is made here in the uk they were able to very quickly change their orders from summer frocks to comfy leisure wear as people went into lockdown, whereas those retailers who had ordered from the sweatshops in India, China etc., were stuck with deliveries of orders which had been made months previously and were still on a container ship. I applaud companies who use UK based manufacturers, but there does need to be checks that there is not exploitation.

Boohoo must be stupid if they thought the really, really cheap clothing they were having made was under decent conditions!

The people who enable sweatshops are consumers who buy tea shirts for £3 and dresses for not much more without sparing a thought on how it can be possible to pay workers a fair wage with such cheap goods.

We have got used to buying cheap factory farmed food and cheap clothing, but if we want workers to be paid more, and animals to be kept humanely we will have to pay for it.

The people who enable sweatshops are consumers who buy tea shirts for £3 and dresses for not much more
I agree Greeneyedgirl but someone must have been turning a blind eye to this somewhere along the line with brown envelopes possibly being involved too.
There are regulations to prevent exploitation of workers & responsibility lies with those who should be enforcing them.
Anyone who buys a t-shirt for £3 is complicit, but not ultimately responsible.
That’s down to the factory owners who I hope are prosecuted and get their just deserts.