All Right For Some

The British government are at present boasting that the UK is enjoying a recovery from its recent economic recession and are of course claiming it is all due to their brilliance. While it is true that many firms have made a limited recovery and a return to more profitable trading. This recovery has only benefitted the owning class. British workers are suffering the longest and severest decline in real earnings since the mid-Victorian era, according to new analysis. 'Research carried out by the TUC suggests that the UK would have to go back to the 1860s for a pay squeeze as deep and as long as the current one. This year is the seventh consecutive year of falling real earnings for UK workers, the TUC claims, a situation, it says, that has no historical precedent. The body, which represents 6 million workers, calculates that there has been an 8% fall in real earnings between 2007 and 2014. (Observer, 12 October) RD