Landscape of economic ruin

SOME of the revised measures announced by the Chancellor last week are sensible.

But he openly admits that there will be a vast number of redundancies when the furlough scheme comes to an end and the new less generous scheme kicks in, and bizarrely, the new scheme makes it cheaper to employ one full-time employee than two part timers, with the second person losing their job.

The Chancellor claims that these are “non-viable jobs” which should not be propped up by the taxpayer, but if we have a vaccine in six months time as we expect, we could hope to be back to something resembling normality, so the jobs which were viable before should be viable again.

Yet because of the Chancellor’s measures we will instead be looking around at a landscape of collapsed companies, workplace teams scattered to the winds, and boarded-up premises, and the money already spent on the furlough scheme will have been wasted. (Or maybe the Chancellor is anticipating the plunge in the economy which would result from failing to reach a Brexit deal by the time the current transition period ends in 13 weeks?)

With Conservative MPs increasingly looking around for a successor to an inadequate Prime Minister whose track record includes a dozen U-turns in recent months and the school examination grade chaos, and who is routinely skewered by Keir Starmer at Prime Minister’s Questions, I suspect that the premature withdrawal of job support is Rishi Sunak’s way of currying support with the extreme free market wing of his party in order to build his own power base.

However many people lose their jobs over the next few months, Conservative MPs will keep theirs until they face the electors in 2024 – and on current trends, the Chancellor knows that that is likely to be under someone other than their underperforming current leader.

Phil Tate

HELP BEAT DEMENTIA

EVERY autumn, Alzheimer’s Society Memory Walk events across the UK see thousands of people come together to raise money to help defeat dementia.

Sadly, this year, Covid meant we had to cancel the large-scale events we all know and love. Instead, we asked people to step out and support us by doing their own personal walks, from July to October, in line with government guidelines.

We’ve been overwhelmed by the enthusiasm and generosity of 2,124 supporters across the North West who signed up and helped raise over £1.2m for Alzheimer’s Society.

A big thank-you to everyone who took part in Memory Walk this year and made a difference to people affected by dementia.

The pandemic has hit people with dementia the hardest, with many of the 850,000 people living with the condition experiencing crippling loneliness and confusion by losing their much-needed routines. Thousands of carers are facing care home visitor bans or are struggling to get a break.

Our services have been used over 2m times since lockdown began, showing people need us more than ever. But we’re facing a significant loss of fundraising income because of coronavirus.

Please consider donating to our Coronavirus Appeal or join a future fundraising event, like Elf Day on Friday, December 4 or any date that suits you. Get a free fundraising pack at alzheimers.org. uk/ElfDay.

Hazel Bailey, Alzheimer’s Society Head of NW Region