How my friends the Poles look like beating the UK for prosperity

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I have much to thank the Poles for. My house is immaculate thanks to the Poles who clean it. My plumbing works thanks to a Pole who is always available. And my breakfast room extension looks great thanks to the Pole who painted it.

So it came as no surprise to me a fascinating piece by Emma Duncan, the British editor of The Economist, shows that incredible as it may seem Poland may be more prosperous than the United Kingdom by 2030.

As she admits that calculation uses growth rates in the two countries from 2014-2019 when Poland grew at 4.4% a year while we were at 1% per year. Those numbers may not continue but with productivity in the UK bloody awful - and I am thinking about the bosses even more than the workforce- I am not hopeful about our future wealth.

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The Poles came here in their hundreds and thousands in 2004 and took jobs that we did not have skills for or more likely weren’t prepared to do for the money. Thinking of plumbing and other building work more specifically.

As Poland has become wealthier a number of the Poles have started going back. That is a shame and that is also a problem.

Where is our skilled labour to come from? And are we educating our children well enough to do the jobs for the future?

In the latest Pisa global education ranking Poland beat Britain and America coming 10th in reading and maths and 12th in science.

I feel a little gloomy right now. We spend too much time talking about work life balance and too little about working bloody hard to make our lives in old age more secure.

Learn from the Poles or face a difficult time ahead.

PS: So just to mention again but if you plan to buy either car or home insurance I wonder if you might look at my small price comparison site A Spokesman Said as we earn a little commission from each sale which helps fund the research and editorial costs of running the site. It has the same offer as the big ones like Go Compare. Thank you.