Business Standard

UK 'rewards laziness', claim Indian-origin MP and 4 others

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Press Trust of India London

In a book that is set to hit stands next month, the five "young guns" from the new Right of the party sought a culture of "graft, risk and effort" to propel Britain into the "superleague" of nations.

They called Britons "the worst idlers" in the world and said the country should emulate the hard work ethic of Asia.

"Too many people in Britain, we argue, prefer a lie-in to hard work," they said, according to the Evening Standard, which carried the excerpts of the 184-page book.

Besides Patel, the book 'Britannia Unchained - Global Growth and Prosperity' is authored by Elizabeth Truss, Dominic Raab, Chris Skidmore and Kwasi Kwarteng, and will pile pressure on Prime Minister David Cameron to step up reforms to boost Britain's economy, the paper said.

 

"Britain will never be as big as China or Brazil, but we can look forward to a new generation, ready to get to work," the MPs were quoted as saying. "If we are to take advantage of these opportunities, we must get on the side of the responsible, the hard working and the brave. We must stop bailing out the reckless, avoiding all risk, and rewarding laziness."

"Once they enter the workplace, the British are among the worst idlers in the world," they said. "We work among the lowest hours, we retire early and our productivity is poor."

The economic crisis should be a "wake-up call" of the need to "rediscover the lost virtue of hard graft," the MPs were quoted as saying.

The paper quoted a No. 10 spokesman as saying that the Government is working hard to get on top of deficits and rebalance the economy.

"We've got the lowest corporation taxes in the G7, have announced huge investment in transport and infrastructure, as well as an 8O billion pound funding for lending scheme, and there will be more in due course."

  

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First Published: Aug 18 2012 | 7:35 PM IST

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