So,who could admit the Conservatives have got anything right? Well,read on - there is real meat in this, that (for no obvious reason) they arent boasting about when they might well do so. A far better boast could be made: for the first time in almost 40 years, Britain now has a higher employment rate than America (and, for that matter, most developed countries). This is, in no small part, thanks to the Chancellor. He has cut taxes and regulation, which has encouraged more people into work. But what he is unusually shy about is the extent of support he now gives to those on low wages. What should be one of the proudest boasts of the Tory campaign is, mystifyingly, being treated as a dirty secret. It takes a lot of detective work to unearth what the Government is doing right. A few weeks ago, analysts at Citigroup were trying to find out why Britain is midway through a job-creation miracle but still struggling to collect enough taxes. It’s less straightforward nowadays, they argued: people on the dole cost money, but so do the low-waged. A single man can claim £72 a week in Jobseeker’s Allowance, but if he moves to the next step, a low-paid job, the tax credits cost £53 a week. Osborne could have cut this down to save money, but he didn’t. If this is the cost of helping people into work, he argued, so be it. So, although the Chancellor won’t admit it, he has changed tactics. Instead of borrowing to finance more spending he has been borrowing to support employment. A sound decision, when you consider the long-term costs of letting people rot on benefits. It certainly makes more sense than Labour’s plan for a spending “stimulus” of building roads to nowhere (and, probably, importing workers to build them). The Tory recipe – welfare reform, tax cuts and employment support – has proved a devastating triple whammy against unemployment, creating the Government’s single proudest boast: 1.8 million more people in work (and the vast majority of them British). This could, if properly explained, be the perfect pre-election example of how the Tories have changed. The party has recognised the great error of the Thatcher years – underestimating the scarring effect of long-term unemployment. There was a tragic waste of human potential in the Eighties, when so many of those who signed on to incapacity benefit never worked again. So this time Osborne has (in effect) been subsidising wages to make sure employers can afford to hire more people. Unlike most election boasts, the effects of this one can be seen in every constituency in Britain.
Posted on: Fri, 16 Jan 2015 09:00:50 +0000
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