Boris Speech - small businesses respond

"More bluster from someone who spends more time thinking up soundbites than putting any of that thought process into strategy. Simply declaring we will become a ‘high-wage, high-skill employment’ economy won’t make it so. Boris talks the talk but he doesn't walk the walk. Consideration for parts of society that Boris and his government haven’t ever personally experienced is a persistent blind spot. How do lower wage citizens that are so vital to our economy fit into this statement?"

"Boris doesn't understand the issues of the working classes or the SMEs that make up the majority of this country, so no, this speech did not hold anything ground-breaking or helpful. The greatest achievement the Tories have made in the last few years, is convincing the working classes that they will do for them what they do for their cronies. We need this government to support business, to support people and to support our children."

"Boris is a bulldozer and bulldozers don't have guts. I'm sure all small businesses and SMEs would love to pay our colleagues high wages for all roles but the reality facing us is we are happy simply to pay our colleagues a decent wage and keep the lights on. Anything beyond that is a bonus! Perhaps Mr Johnson could spend less time making embarrassing videos for social media and more time actually thinking through a plan that will guide us out of the mess we are in."

"Please explain to me Boris, how do you plan on levelling up the elderly, disabled and family care givers who are unable to work, let alone gain a higher wage than circa £70 per week? You have also just removed £20 per week from their benefits. That's levelling down, in my, and everyone else's, book."

"Boris can't fix what he broke and then call himself a hero. Of course, everyone would love to see higher wages and more high-skilled opportunities, but you've got to start in the right place. Most children studying in school today are learning about subjects for jobs that won't even exist once they enter the jobs market. He can shovel out as many slogans as he wants, but we're not buying it."

"The problem is that the guts are likely to be those of the people left hung out to dry. People needing care, care givers, those not so academic. What happens to them in a high wage world? Do they become "the useless class" as noted by the World Economic Forum?"

Previous form would lead us to believe that it's more Boris bluster but I'd love to be proved wrong. You get the impression that this is just going to be more vacuous soundbites with little in the way of an actual plan or follow through. In a business meeting, with nothing to back all this up he'd get eaten alive! We just want some sort of joined up plan and strategy to move forward as a nation rather than lurch from crisis to crisis.

"Shouldn't his attention be focused on getting people employed in general post-Covid? Many people are still mentally exhausted and the additional pressure to upskill, although better paid for some, could be too much."

"You have to wonder why some of the "high-skill" jobs are so low-paid in the first place, and what Boris's intentions are on this front. Maybe recognising that cleaners need a certain amount of training and skill, hospital cleaners even more so and that applies to all the so-called "low-skill" jobs in this country would be a start for him. Sadly he doesn't seem to care about jobs at the lower end of the pay scale, or the people who do them."

"Yet another bit of Boris babble. I just wish he and other MPs across all parties would actually listen to the electorate. Raising wages will only mean raising prices to the consumers, therefore meaning that the cost of living will raise. No actual levelling up because the current low earners will be absolutely no better off at all."