GUTLESS ED 'MR BEAN' MILIBAND MAY NOT EMBRACE LIVING WAGE

Sir George Bain, credited with devising the UK minimum wage has told the Financial Times that his system of protection for the low paid is outdated

By HARRY BLACKWOOD

WITH impeccable comedy timing, the Manchester United footballer, Wayne Rooney, signed a new contract today that will see him earn £300,000 a week. Yes you read that correctly £300,000 A WEEK for kicking a football.

Now I realise that's not funny. No, what's funny is that on the same day as an oafish footballer was putting pen to paper on a contract that will see him earn over a million quid every month, Sir George Bain - the man credited with coming up with the UK minimum wage - was telling the Financial Times that his system of protection for the poor had run its course.

You bet it's run it's course. It had run its course the day it was introduced because minimum wage was never going to lift people out of poverty. It was only ever going to keep them IN poverty. After 15 years that's EXACTLY what it's achieved.

The same poor bastards that were working all week on minimum wage In 1999 to earn enough just to scrape by are doing precisely that in 2014. Earning £6.31 an hour (the current legal minimum for adults) certainly isn't living. Hell's teeth, it's barely even surviving. That's what millions in the world's sixth richest country are doing - working their backsides off just to exist.

What Sir George failed to properly address in his FT article is how his minimum wage concept has actually failed miserably. What it's done is normalise low wages instead of acting as a benchmark to create a ripple effect and drive wages upwards.

There has been no ripple. There are 1.2 million UK workers who are paid £6.31 (or within 5p of that) and a further 1.4 million who are on within a measly 50p more. Employers think they are gushing philanthropists if they pay a few coppers above what they are legally obliged to.

In total there are five million workers in the UK who are 'low paid' by using the "official yardstick" of two thirds of the typical hourly wage. AND THERE IN A NEAT LITTLE PACKAGE IS THE PROBLEM.

The politicians, academics and business people who wouldn't dream of getting out of bed for about £10 an hour (for that's what they are saying the 'typical' rate is) think it's perfectly acceptable for a footballer to earn more in a week than many people will earn in their entire lifetime. How in God's name can it be?

Ed 'Mr Bean' Miliband, leader of the Labour Party
and Opposition is only 'thinking' about
including a Living Wage commitment in his party's
2015 General Election Manifesto.

And before any left-leaning thinkers get any ideas that the Labour Party can offer any hope for Britain's working poor, they can give their heads a shake. The ineffective and wishy washy Labour leader Ed MrBean, is only THINKING, yes CONSIDERING, making a living wage commitment for Labour's 2015 election manifesto. What this means is that the party that is supposed to represent Britain's working classes is not entirely sure whether the very same people they want to vote for them are worthy of £7.45 a hour.

The hypocrisy of it stinks to high heaven. The Labour Party is infested with Tories in red rosettes, millionaires are ten a penny in the party and the cheeky bastards are only CONSIDERING a derogatory £7.45 an hour as part of the manifesto.

This is another glaring example of why NO political party is worth voting for. While the rich get richer and thick footballers are paid millions to kick a leather ball about, Britain's working poor are barely surviving with many of them needing hand-outs to top up their earnings. Some are even having to use food banks.

But I don't blame Rooney or any of his fellow professionals for the sickening inequalities in our society. And I  certainly don't blame the Tories. They are doing precisely  what I'd expect. No, I lay the blame fairly and squarely at the door of the Labour Party. At a time when Britain is crying out for a fairer society with more caring and compassion all that Labour can do is give Britain slightly diluted Tory policies.

The message is clear. Don't vote. It only encourages the bastards.

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