New Labour (Patreon)

I wrote this as a draft at the end of January, when the eventual collapse of the UK economy was the worst we thought the year had to give. I thought a short caption talking about how the labor shortage in UK would be impacted by Brexit could be a good backdrop for some high tech hypno-solution to the problem for some companies. It didn't really feel finished, so I didn't publish it thinking I could come back to it later. The way things worked out I don't think this specific reason will ever be usable, but I might recycle this story somehow in the future.

They could talk Brexit dividends until they got red, white, and blue in the face. Doesn't change the fact that the Polish construction workers don't show up anymore. They can talk "unskilled labour" and worker quota all they want as well. Doesn't change the fact that positions aren't filled and buildings aren't built.

Unless you contract with Bushnell & son. They keep filling their positions, many thanks to the little short-range blue tooth transmitter they place at all their sites. Anyone walking by with a jailbroken Android phone and insecure Bluetooth settings will have the special app installed, and the next time they unlock their phone they are a completely new person, literally. Happens almost exclusively to computer nerds with a false sense of IT security superiority. "I can't be a victim, because I don't click attachments in emails" they think. A win-win in Bushnell & son's book to have them do some honest work for a change.