[jonbxx]

A high skill, high wage economy is a noble aim but there is a problem - who does the low wage, low skill jobs? This has been a problem since the Blair years where many more people went to university and got those high skills and corresponding high wages. We were told to get an education or we would be flipping burgers. The problem is now who is going to flip the burgers?

EU immigration was a useful sticking plaster that covered this gap and (whisper it quietly) successive governments were quite happy to let this continue, especially as EU immigrants were the only personal net contributors to UK taxation over the period of their life in the UK.

Education in this country seems to be doing well in doing more vocational courses. My eldest has just picked her A levels but the choices for vocational education looked really good too. However, there needs to be a sea change in how jobs like building, care, etc. are seen in this country. In Germany, these jobs aren't seen as jobs for people not smart enough to get higher education but true vocations in themselves. I am not sure sure careers are so well respected in the UK