British workers are among the most idle in the world, according to a book written by five Tory MPs.
The book ‘Britannia Unchained: Lessons for Growth and Prosperity’ – written by the education minister and South West Norfolk MP Elizabeth Truss, now an education minister, as well as Kwasi Kwarteng, Priti Patel, Dominic Raab, and Chris Skidmore – reckoned that people who come into the UK from abroad are prepared to work harder than the indigenous population.
The authors wrote: “Once they enter the workplace, the British are among the worst idlers in the world. We work among the lowest hours, we retire early and our productivity is poor. Whereas Indian children aspire to be doctors or businessmen, the British are more interested in football and pop music.”
The book also claimed that school pupils were avoiding difficult subjects such as maths and the sciences and this was causing problems in the workplace.
“Instead of hard choices, students apply for a degree in media or business, which will often allow for the study of easier A-Levels,” the MPs said. “As with US colleges, science A-Levels are more harshly marked than those in media or sociology, the difference being up to a grade. In a culture of equivalence, where all subjects are deemed equal, students make the seemingly rational choice of going for the easier option.”
The MPs are all members of the Conservative ‘Free Enterprise Group’. On its website Truss says: “Britain is now 83rd in the world for regulation, 94th for taxation and struggling to compete internationally on education and infrastructure. In many emerging economies markets are viewed as a source of liberation; in Britain they are regarded with scepticism. In the minds of the public the market is decoupled from meritocracy. Liberal economics have been blamed for everything from excessive bankers’ bonuses to misguided monetary policy.
“Conservatives need to recast the argument about free enterprise for a new age, or risk losing the debate to a tide of anti-market socialisation.”
This from a group of workers who have twelve weeks away from the House during the average year, not counting the week for Conference. I notice from the list of personal interests that both Raab and Truss have sufficient time to earn money writing for newspapers.
Typical capatilist claptrap. Many of my friends and familiy including myself work far longer hours than they are contracted to. For myself I work many more hours than I actually get paid for, that’s called loyalty. Tories are notorius for tarring all with the same brush, The British are not Idle and never have been it just suits the tory image to say we are. To compare us to emerging nations like India is like comparing chalk and cheese, they are striving to get to our standards which is a compliment to what we in Britain and the rest of the western world have achieved. Do we retire early, no we retire when we are too clapped out to put in a decent days work. If I had spent my days in an elitist society I could probably carry on working for longer but after spending over 30 years in the building trade my body is telling me it is nackered
Are these more posh boys and girls that don’t know the price of a pint of milk? Also, the people that are residing over failed austerity and deliberate policy to make job insecurity the norm, creating untold anxiety and stress for hard working people and their families.
I Had a quick look at their working backgrounds and I’m afraid none seenm to be really qualified to talk about hard graft!
It would appear that 4 of them had hardworking parents that came to Britain and succeeded by working hard – maybe that qualifies them to judge the rest of us?
I would like to hear the Prime Minister say whether or not he agrees with these views.
For this group to say that we are an idle population demonstrates a very narrow view of the country.
This country has something forced on them called the working time directive!!
This was put in by government to try and reduce the hours that people work. Then the government informed us that due to the poor way they have managed the countries finances that we have to work on longer except MPs!! This group must have been looking in the mirror when they wrote this book and not out of the window!!!!
Yet more crass generalisation from people who should be promoting our country not belittling it. I know many young people who are working 24/7 to get themselves through uni – my son is studying for a degree in biological science and doing three jobs. And what opportunities are there for them when they graduate here? A lot of talent is just going to waste
Workers from Eastern Europe and other places my well work harder and do jobs that British citizens would rather not do.
This is no argument, however as such people can always be found.
This is how capiltalism, including the EU, works. Pressure is relieved from local market forces which would otherwise mean that unpopular jobs need to have better pay and conditions to attract people to them.
And instead people from other countries, so-called economic migrants who come from countries where employment prospects may be limited or pay and conditions are worse, are recruited and allowed into the country to fill these posts.
It’s akin to always looking for a coolie class who will always be prepared to do the dirty work: a kind of latter day slavery.
This is leading of course to the rise in shanty towns/garage accomodation with illegal workers which the state in reality has no priority to deal with since it props up the whole rotten system.
I would agree with the previous comments about the authors credentials to speak with any authority of such things.
The majority of people in this country work long hard hours and are now expected to do so for longer before being able to retire.
Meanwhile exorbitant house prices in particular and increasing costs remove disposable income from peoples pockets: I recently read that we should have the cheapest petrol in Europe, however taxation makes it the most expensive.
The authors are correct about the aspirations of people in this country being in the gutter, however this is in a context of working class organisations and aspirations being deliberately destroyed by these very people and their kind.
The meritocracy of which they dream requires a full and healthy concept of citizenship, inclusion and participation for all.
Instead the gap between rich and poor just keeps getting wider and wider and the analysis of Marx and Engels all the more relevant.
I have to say that I do agree with the sentiment of the argument. There are a lot of people who turn up and do the bare minimum. The problem probably stems from the fact that it is now made so difficult for UK organisations to get rid of someone who is not doing their job to the expected standard. People who come to this country to work often have a greater work ethic as they have come from countries where competition for jobs is very high and workers’ rights are fairly primative. I am glad someone has shelved the PC rhetoric and told it how it is!
These people are in a world of their own and not in touch with reality.
One minute we are told that we work longer hours in the Uk than most places in the world, then we hear comments like this.
With all that has happened with the dishonesty of MP’s over the last two years, I think they would be better employed sorting themselves out to the benefit of the country, than getting peoples backs up with statements like this.
I have worked an average of 12 hours a day for the last twenty years and am looking to go to a “part time” job of 40 hours a week for my last 12 months before retiring!!
Come on get real.
These statements are simply not true. UK workers in full time employment work the third longest hours in the EU, retire later than all but four countries (yes we even work later in life than Germany), and the GDP per hour worked (how productive our workforce is) is above the OECD average (above Japan, Canada and Korea). So where did these “facts” come from? Nowhere. They are purely prejudiced statements made by young ambitious MPs who are desperate to be noticed and should be treated as the puerile rubbish they are.
Another example of people who have never worked a hard day in their lives but expect everyone around them to work hard to allow them to remain passengers on the gravy train. They should try hard work themselvs and not expect others to do it for them.
Tory view of working people will never change.
Having been able to enjoy working in the UK and abroad, it has always amazed me how hard we do work in Britain in terms of the number of hours and often wearing it like some badge of honour.
In my own view, we work hard but are not always as productive as we could be, which is a very different problem.
Other than that – usual tosh from a collection of folk that do not know what a hard day’s work looks like.
“Conservatives need to recast the argument about free enterprise for a new age, or risk losing the debate to a tide of anti-market socialisation.”
Wasn’t that argument lost when the banking industry limped cap-in-hand to the taxpayer begging for a handout?
I am afraid this is just lazy thinking.
Look at Jaguar LandRover, the BMW Mini plant and the Japanese owned car plants in the UK: they were hotbeds of unrest and lazy workers when they had British owners. It is a sweeping generalisation of course, but the problem is lazy British management not managing.
Until we fix this problem we will continue our decline in the global productivity tables – something that Queen Victoria used to worry about.
If we don’t fix this our children and our children’s children will live in a low wage third class country with poor healthcare, schooling and the rest.
People need to be managed to be more effective.
Read my article “Is paying people to work wrong?” http://bit.ly/samjw
Help me get the word to the government, to the bosses to anyone who will listen – please!
Thatcher said that there was no need for manufacturing industry of any kind in the UK so she set about destroying it, first with the steele industry then the coal mines then ship building, three industries that were hard work for the people who had to work in those industries. If the five people who wrote that book had to spend a week in any one of those jobs they would know what hard work was.
I am always amazed why supposedly intelligent people write such utter rubbish.
I find it offensive that these elected people firstly think that is okay to write such tripe and secondly believe it.
One report I read, said UK workforce worked the longest hours and becoming the most stressed in Europe hence the focus on ‘stress at work’ under the HSE directive.
Sometimes ‘idiots’ like these are not worth a mention or even to be given a thought about, but ‘we’ as a country are going through a recession (so they tell us) and it is ‘we’ as a country that will get out of this – so how dare they!
I also presume that their motivation skills are second to none!
Should one assume MPs are lazy because they leave bad legislation on the statute books?
The benefits trap is well known and the solution is simple. Why can’t they move their backsides and sort it out?
All they have to do is sit down and talk to put the legislation right. They are allowing a system to continue that tells people not to try and find work, because if they do they lose money faster than they earn it!
Before we critique the productivity of the ‘average’ British worker should we not take the time to look at what management are doing to foster a healthy, happy working environment? Do line managers in your organsation have the tools they need to recognise staff for exhibiting desired behaviours or are they left to their own devises? A more productive workforce can only be achieved with engagement initiatives that are driven from the very top.
Here’s my take on whether British workers are among the worst idlers in the world:
http://www.staffmotivationmatters.co.uk/are-british-workers-really-among-worst-idlers-world/