Cameron, Cable and Milliband are all addressing the CBI conference this week.
Milliband will make a well structured speech setting out his plan for attacking our deficit more slowly in order to be able to support growth - to safeguard employment. He’ll no doubt attack the ConDem policies. Milliband and his team must speak hard and loud against the idea that the deficit was Labour’s fault . . . world recession, need to sustain growth, work, jobs and so on. It’s important that this message (although, in a sense, historical) gets through to people. Recent polling suggests that nearly half the people questioned still think Labour is to blame for the deficit - note that the ConDems take EVERY opportunity to repeat this, driving the message home. Only about a third of that number blame the ConDems - who haven’t really been there long enough to blame . . . yet.
DC and VC have more difficult jobs, though. It may be that DC is just beginning to realise how jittery the country has become. Anyone in the workplace knows that jobs are already being shed. It’s not surprising that private companies say they’re going to mop up all the jobs that are lost in the public sector - they want to support the Tory policy which is good news for them. DC and VC are going to go for growth.
It’s hard to see how, in reality, all these jobs are going to be mopped up. But what is certain, is that the jobs that are mopped up will be people doing much the same work as they did in the public sector but at lower wages and with worse conditions - so the companies they will work for can make profits.
Where drastic slimming down is happening - in the NHS or LAs or Universities, for instance, many people may remain out of work. A few research centres won’t be able to employ them, Universities, for instance, are already working hard to make links with industry, and a few new small businesses certainly aren’t going to make much difference. We’ve heard that argument before.
What would have made a difference in Sheffield would have been the loan to Forge Masters.
Cable, this morning, on R4, not surprisingly refused to accept the word ‘gamble’ when applied to the policy of drastic cuts. But it is a gamble from Cameron and Osborne - neither of whom will really be affected.
Cable seemed to be burying his head in the sand about LibDem rumblings on housing benefit. In truth, poor old Cable sounded dreadful, no doubt disorientated by turning about face so fast and so frequently.
No comments:
Post a Comment