Monday 13 September 2010

Popularity, Contest

The cuts will be unpopular. The unions are going to oppose the cuts. So, out of the unions and the Government, whose popularity will be enhanced, and whose diminished? It is quite deliciously hilarious to read people who just assume, even after all these years, that the general electorate picks up its skirts and shrieks in horror at the mere mention of trade unions in general and of the (almost completely fictitious) Winter of Discontent in particular.

But even that is almost sane compared to the view that the way to re-stimulate the economy is to cut spending power in general and jobs in particular. Still, believe in cuts in sickness and disability benefits when you see them, and not before. Everyone on them has been signed off by a doctor, and will produce a doctor at any hearing convened with a view to getting them off those benefits. The real scandal is not how many people are swinging the lead. It is that that many people really are medically unfit for work. How did that happen? And what must we do to put it right?

1 comment:

  1. "But even that is almost sane compared to the view that the way to re-stimulate the economy is to cut spending power in general and jobs in particular."

    It is interesting how few people seem to understand this, especially among small businessmen who stand to lose the most from cuts in spending power and job losses among working people.

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