Skilled Workers Leave as Real Wages in Eastern Europe Rise by up to 70% while UK Wages Fall
Three years is a long time in politics, and 10 years is longer still. Actually both are pretty long periods of time anyway. Ten years ago, back in the aftermath of the financial crisis - that self-inflicted near-catastrophy resulting from a lack of oversight and regulation in the US and UK - things looked good in Britain when viewed from Riga, or Plovdiv, or Craiova or from Bydgoszcz. Prompt action in the UK had saved its banks, liquidity pumped into the financial sytem had saved its economy. Britain was back on its feet, the pound gave you €1.30 and wages were anyway far more than you could earn at home. Small wonder then that energetic people trapped in rural economies with few opportunities and low wages flocked to the UK - and the British government made no attempt to use EU mechanisms to control this. With the second wave of eastern countries joining the EU, Britain did apply for a 5-year delay as it could have done ealier, to enable a controlled adjustment to take place. However, vacancies were fill
