Well that’s not that much of a surprise after that budget! But wait, no, this is a whole new campaign - pushing to get people back into work.
And this is where that pig-headed ignorance comes in, because launching an initiative to get people back into work, immediately following a budget which has cut businesses down at the knees demonstrates, well, how can I put it mildly - rank stupidity.
Almost every business, big or small, since the Budget was announced, has been shouting from the rooftops about how the Government smash and grab on National Insurance, coupled with increases in minimum wage and cuts in Business Rates Relief, means that, in all probability, businesses are going to be reducing employment and certainly cutting back on recruitment.
So good luck, Sir Keir, in finding the jobs to try and get people back into work!
We’re only four or so months into this new Government, and I want to give them a chance, but this level of stupidity and boneheaded refusal to accept the reality of the situation on the ground makes me, and anyone running a business, let alone a pub, despair.
Overhauling job centres, reforming the welfare systems and getting the long-term unemployed back to work is all well and good, but strangling business growth with a smash and grab Budget that does nothing to support or encourage employment creation does not really fit with the idea of growing the economy and job creation.
The irony is, the hospitality industry should, and would, be the perfect partner for such a Government scheme.
This sector offers a fantastic route back into work, a place for people to start out and then potentially grow a career, but the Government needs to wake up and recognise that and rather than stubbornly stick to the idiocy of it’s recent policies, reverse some decisions and join with industry to grow the economy and employment at the same time.
If the Government is scratching its head at why businesses are not leaping to work with them to crack the long-term unemployed issue, it needs to face the realities of the economic landscape its policies are shaping.