I don't think so. If UBI was rolled out to everyone, in work or out, then companies would not need to 'pay more' to entice people but rather to provide a more appealing working environment, greater in-work benefits, and flexible working hours.

That's would be fine too.

You seem to have forgotten a thing called 'The British Empire'

Good that you admit that having a job decreases quality of life for some people.

well controlling immigration is the key to solving many problems like shortage of housing schools and the crisis in the health service. the economy will recover any minor fluctuations so its not an issue.plus who is going to take control if the tories dont deliver what the people want.maybe ukip would do better if the tories tried to palm the electorate off with a half brexit approach.

So you think being a dictator over other countries is and was a good thing ? Forcing the will of one country on other countries is good. Were we not immigrants in these countries ?

Nice to see what you think of this country.

I'd rather we took over the world than a lot of other countries taking us over.

You could hardly blame him if he did because the British Empire is long gone.

So has the rest of the world.

Also, people come here for various reasons, not necessarily because Britain is a "great country". It's one of many options for economic migrants or refugees.

Well they certainly don't come here because it is a bad country or because they are worse off here.

Some might come here to punish us for their false belief that we are responsible for what happens in their country.

Norway are in the EEA and in the Customs Union are not part of the EU. They don't use the Euro as their domestic currency either. The Uk would be no different to Norwzy if it left the EU and then applied to become EEA and Customs Union members. The UK would not need to ditch sterling and join the Euro.

Nowhere near all 17.1 million who voted for the UK to leave the EU did so because they wanted to see "Nothing To Declare" immigration operations all across the UK to deport all EU National back to the EU even if they have been living, working and paying income tax and national insurance in the UK in excess of 5 years.

Nowhere near all 17.1 million would have voted to leave because they wanted to see a return of the expensive short lastig environmrntally unfriendly incandescant light bulbs back on sale and the only ones on sale again, or a return of the old style non-saftey 3 pin electric plugs where you have to wire them up yourself before using your electrical items.

I feel the same about any country that believes it has the right to take over another country. So you are saying its right to take over other countries as long as its the UK doing it LOL. Sorry but the days of the British Empire are long gone, just the same as the Roman empire are long gone. Empires come and go history shows you that

No I think it is better that we show other countries how to do it well by doing it ourselves, rather than racing to the bottom like them.

A new city bigger than Cardiff arrives every year. We do not build schools, roads, hospitals quick enough. We do not train doctors quick enough.

We cannot continue the rapid expansion - it has to be slowed down.

Tony Blair (and others who followed) neglected to prepare the countries infrastruture and services to cope with the increased migration allowed (unlimited eatern eu migration when we were allowed to limit it) because it grew the economy and kept nice figures on the front page of the FT. IMHO Tony Blair makes Maggie looks like a saint and im coming from a welsh Thatcher hating family.

Racing to the bottom? I find your crass comments are doing just that.

Well if were better than them now, how do we race to the bottom,? Or are they doing better than us ?

If you have a counter argument I'll hear it?

But if you think that eroding pay and conditions isn't 'a race to the bottom' then I'd love to know what is.

What are you on about? Many other Countries have better pay and conditions than we do.

Eh?

It depends which side of the economic debate you are on,

If you are employers who wants cheap labour you can control with threat of sacking, then working in a 3rd world country is good.

If you are an employee who wants to be paid more than 1p an hour for making shoes, and having workers rights, then living here is good.

Not the ones the majority of immigrants come from.

But itthe uk public who buy these goods made in the 3rd world country, but on the economic debate India is economic big boy, but does have 3rd world country living standards for most of the population. And saying we cannot control things in india , how does the uk compete with india in the big bad world

You mean like Ireland and Germany? I don't think so?

No one on this thread seems to be have mentioned the elephant in the room here - we have more non EU migrants coming to the UK than EU migrants.

What matters is GDP per head. In recent years GDP may have gone up but if the population rises more then we are worse off. How many tens of billions does the infrastructure and housing required cost too.

There is such a thing as quality of life - overcrowding, poor rip off housing, lack of access to a GP or a school place or a sense of community and common identity.

There is more to life than just money - our grandparents had a lot less material wealth but they were a lot happier. We now apparently have the most unhappy kids in Europe - possibly as they never see their parents as much as they both have to work to pay the mortgage due to our crazy house prices which would not have been the case in the past.

Most of the working age benefits bill gets spent in London due to the high cost of housing benefit. Just happens to be the place with the lowest proportion of its population born outside the UK.

Look we know Nick Clegg has, so have you?