To be embarrassed to be British?

[ReasonablyIntelligent]

I've just seen on the news that the 29 Brexit Party MEPs all turned their backs (quite literally) during the European anthem in yesterday's opening session to the European Parliament.

Regardless of Pro-Brexit / Anti-Brexit debates, this is deeply deeply inappropriate, insanely undiplomatic and will have done nothing other than make the UK look ridiculous, childish and plain rude.

I'm ashamed to be represented by these people and the way things are going, ashamed to be a part of a country that is behaving like this.
Everyone else in Europe must think we are dirt.

I'm not embarrassed to be British - I didn't vote for the Brexit Party so I don't feel they represent me.

I'm abroad in Lanzarote right now & there are a mixture of European nationalities including Brits in my resort. All getting on together, sad to think we won't be part of the EU much longer.

Agree with PreseaCombatir, I also have family working in the Construction Industry and they just couldn't compete with the cheap migrant labour, and they felt it was unfair and that they weren't being listened to.

At this rate I think the EU will be happy to see us leave

Well, that suits. We voted to leave. The theory is that they'll be happy to see us leave. Sounds like it should be straightforward .....

And, no: I'm not at all embarrassed to be British.

“We” didn’t vote to leave. 37% of the electorate in June 2016 did. The other 63% voted to stay or didn’t care either way.

Forgive me, but how come to minimum wage is not applying here?
If the native workers are being outpriced by migrants - that must mean that the wage is below national minimum.

With employment law as it is, anyone going 5am 7 days a week and works 12 hour shifts must be earning enough to support his family? Because that's £689 a week on min wage - £36k a year

Unless he's self employed, in which case that's a business model issue?

Minimum wage does apply. Qualified tradesmen don’t work for minimum wage and their rates are significantly undercut by workers from other parts of the EU.

Sounds like it should be straightforward .....

Only if you steadfastly refuse to acknowledge the Northern Ireland border problem. Or if you're happy to rip up the Good Friday Agreement. Seems like many Brexiters are quite nonchalantly doing both.

Well, it depends if you’re doing day work or price work. It’s not really the case that all construction workers just get minimum wage, and rightly so! They are skilled at what they do, I certainly can’t do it!
I’m not sure exactly what the numbers are, because it’s not my job, but say for example, you were doing price work, the average rate used to be £4.50 a metre, then all of a sudden huge influx of EU migrants, this falls to £3.00 per metre. This will make a massive difference to your monthly earnings.
The fact is, wages were higher in the past than they are now. The price per metre sq was higher than before.
People went from being able to earn a living, to not being able even though they were doing the exact same job, due to mass immigration pushing the prices down.
I think it’s massively unfair of you to blame people for not being able to earn a living by doing exactly what they previously did, because they’ve got a bad ‘business model’ massively unfair.

• obviously I mean Price per metre sq is lower than before

Minimum wage does apply. Qualified tradesmen don’t work for minimum wage and their rates are significantly undercut by workers from other parts of the EU

Exactly. Do people honestly believe qualified tradesmen should be paid minimum wage? Unbelievable!

@PreseaCombatir and @Mamamia456 Do you think the points I made at 15.33 about blaming the wrong people are invalid then? Genuine question.

Of course they are invalid, because the issue is due to free movement in the EU.
What do you think the government could have/should have done to stop people coming from the EU to work in the UK? Bearing in mind that we are bound by the EU free movement laws?
Do you think that business should have boycotted EU labour?
How do you think the government could prevent this, without breaking EU conventions?

I want us to leave the EU and I think this kind of behaviour is ridiculous, immature and rude. It does the brexit agenda no favours other than pissing off the 27 member states. Lib dems are also a disgrace.

Of course I don't think qualified tradespeople should earn minimum wage.

I was contesting that someone working 12 hours a day 7 days a week can't afford to support their family.

There's a stark difference between not earning what you want/are worth, and not being able to support your family.

I wasn't bashing anyone's value at all.

I was contesting that someone working 12 hours a day 7 days a week can't afford to support their family

There's a stark difference between not earning what you want/are worth, and not being able to support your family

Exactly!
DP went from working 5 days a week from day 7 to 4, to having to work 12 hour shifts seven days a week to earn the same money he previously earned in five days!
Not every week, but when the rates are bad you do what you have to do to provide for your family.
Peoples money was declining, therefore rendering them unable to provide for their families, when previously they could, by doing the exact same job!
Why on earth do you think people were/are complaining? For fun? The rates are going up a bit now, but they are still nowhere near what they were before!
Or did you genuinely just think peoples complaints were just ‘ignorant’ and ‘racist’?
I’m shocked by peoples ignorance , given how many years people have been complaining about this!!

I've been ashamed to be British since the referendum. Obviously.

@Mamamia456 @PreseaCombatir
Where is this place you live with an abundance of tradesmen? You can't find a builder round here for love nor money they're all booked up for months in advance and rushed off their feet. And they charge a fortune.

Wasn't Crossrail even delayed because of lack of skilled labour?

KennDodd
We live in East London.
I’m sure they do blame the lack of labour, but I’m be more inclined to believe it was their piss poor management

Building sites. I know someone who works as a plumber on high end commercial properties in London. There are some jobs where he’s the only person who speaks English and his rate has stood still for years. Any chance for the contractor he works for to employ guys willing to accept less money is grabbed with both hands. As an ardent remainer, he’s ambivalent about Brexit now as he reckons he’ll shortly be earning a lot more.

Here's some information about the skills shortage.

www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/uk-construction-worker-shortage-recruitment-brexit-eu-nationals-citizens-europe-trade-association-a8172466.html

www.ft.com/content/36baacce-ddd0-11e8-9f04-38d397e6661c

KennDodd
Do you know what, I just answered your question in good faith, but reading your comment back, I don’t know if you’re being sarcastic, or implying that I’m somehow exaggerating? Because I can assure you that I am not.

What come back? The links about the skills shortage?

That article is 18 months old and developers can’t sell their houses so I doubt it’s a shortage of skilled labour that’s holding them back.