Jezza won’t fall for shabby Cons tricks
When I was a waiter on the ships, employment wasn’t secure but at least I had good notice about when I could work.
Today nearly 10 million people are in insecure employment on short-term or zero-hour contracts.
Notice might be an hour. Or you get 15 hours of work one week, nothing the next.
Smartphone apps turn employees into the self-employed, denying them paid holiday, maternity pay or paid sick leave, so bosses maximise profits and squirrel them offshore to cheat the Treasury.
They call it the gig economy and Theresa May did that old Tory trick of bringing in a Labour figure to help her solve the problem.
Matthew Taylor, who worked for Tony Blair in Downing Street, was commissioned by May to produce a policy for fair and decent employment. Helping May? Now that’s a tough gig. Taylor’s Review reminded me of a lot of his work for us – long on words; short on practical ideas.
It didn’t solve exploitation of zero-hour contracts, abuse of selfemployed status or the minimum wage. It came up with the definition “dependent contractor”. It’s a start.
But May hasn’t even guaranteed to implement his recommendations – only study them.
Taylor was treated like an exploited worker too. When May and Chancellor Philip Hammond tried to increase National Insurance on the selfemployed, he was wheeled out to defend it. Thanks to Labour and the Federation of Small Businesses, May did a U-turn and Taylor looked a fool.
May and David Cameron have both used the con of pretending to sort difficult problems by getting a Labour figure to lead a so-called independent commission. Cameron made former Labour Health Secretary Alan Milburn chair of an inquiry into social mobility and poverty.
Five years on, the Office for National Statistics said the proportion of people suffering “severe material deprivation” – unable to pay unexpected bills – was up a fifth to 6.1 per cent. The proportion of people in persistent poverty who are suffering severe material deprivation was more than four times that, 27.4 per cent.
Evidence grows of a greater disparity between rich and poor. And of less social mobility.
Milburn said Cameron failed because of lack of leadership. They didn’t even have a meeting.
Another ex-Blair cabinet member conned by Cameron was John Hutton, who chaired a commission into public service pensions. He produced a report within a year, yet the Tories did nothing. Pensions are still in crisis and the plight of many women hasn’t been addressed.
Lord Adonis chaired Cameron’s Infrastructure Commission. He backed HS2 and Crossrail 2 –
London rail line – but recommended spending more money in the North. Latest analysis shows the capital will get transport investment worth £1,943 per person, the North East just £220.
Our Labour Government worked with Cameron and George Osborne to solve social care. They cowardly pulled out and accused us of wanting to introduce a “death tax”.
Jeremy Corbyn is absolutely right to refuse May’s offer to work with Tories. She asked for ideas. He sent her a signed copy of Labour’s excellent manifesto. He was spot on!
As May’s Zombie Government staggered on this week, Corbyn was in Brussels meeting the EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier. Their talks lasted longer than the Tories’.
Labour shouldn’t work with this shambolic government. The Tories are not to be trusted and we shouldn’t prop them up.
It seems Southern Rail has found a star in 15-year-old intern Eddie Smith. His chirpy tweets on the train’s Twitter account, replying to disgruntled commuters, were charming and won praise. But Eddie’s stint on Twitter came on the same day Southern was fined £13.4million for poor performance. If only its trains could be as good as its tweets. Forget about putting Eddie in charge of social media – let him run Southern. He can’t do worse than the current bosses.