An ill wind from Tory HQ

Ken Livingstone
If you're suddenly feeling worse off this month, blame the Tories - David Cameron, George Osborne and Boris Johnson.

Worse-off Wednesday was an apt way to describe April 6, when a whole series of tax changes, benefit cuts and reductions to welfare payments imposed by the government came into effect, hitting pay packets and peoples' quality of life.

We are seeing housing benefit cuts to the tune of £220 million, tax benefit cuts amounting to £1.18 billion, a freeze in child benefit equivalent to a £356m cut and other welfare cuts amounting to £664m.

These cuts come to about £10 for every household in Britain. But clearly not everyone will lose out in the same way.

The biggest losers from these changes will be those entitled to welfare - the working poor, the growing number of unemployed and those with disabilities.

Not only are they the ones hardest hit by the changes but they are those least able to afford them.

But all this is just the beginning.

The government's own data shows that cuts will rise over time, so that by 2014-15 they and other cuts will amount to £18.08bn - or more than £750 for every household in Britain.

And it won't just be the very poorest who will suffer - the "squeezed middle" are in for a tough time too.

Combined, those on low and middle incomes are bearing the brunt of the government's measures.

A freeze on the threshold for the higher-rate 40 per cent tax-band at £35,001 rather than allowing it to rise with inflation to £37,400 means 750,000 people will be brought into the band for the first time, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

The increase in employees' national insurance contribution rate from 11 to 12 per cent is also a tax increase.

And it all comes on top of an increase in the VAT rate, hitting the entire population with a regressive tax, and rising inflation which is now running at three per cent above average wage growth.

Much of this inflation is either directly caused by the Tory-led coalition through the VAT hike or has been allowed by them in the form of rising utilities bills and increased fares.

In London, for example, the impact of Chancellor George Osborne's lifting of the cap on rail fare increases is compounded by Mayor Boris Johnson's above-inflation public-transport fare rises.

In three years a single bus or tram fare in the city has risen from 90p to £1.30 - an increase of 44 per cent.

Fares in London are planned to rise by two per cent above inflation for years to come.

Londoners are also hardest hit by the flat-rate cuts in benefits such as housing, because housing is so much more expensive in London than in the rest of the country.

According to homeless charity Shelter 160,000 households across the capital will be affected by the cut.

All these cutbacks will literally hit hundreds of thousands of households, most of them in work.

According to independent research from the Resolution Foundation London families will lose an average of £603 a year as a result of the government's decision to reduce the percentage of child-care costs paid through the Working Tax Credit, £167 more than the average across the UK (£436). There could hardly be a clearer illustration of the damage being caused by the coalition government than families losing £603 a year as a result of just one of the many cuts being made.

So it was richly ironic that Boris Johnson used his £250,000-a-year Telegraph column this week to whinge about Labour criticism of government policies, comparing it to trying to "spread gloom in the sunshine."

The weather may be sunny but the winds blowing from the Conservative-led government are as icy as ever.

•It is becoming increasingly apparent that public opinion is moving against military intervention in Libya.

YouGov's Anthony Wells wrote earlier this week that "for the first time so far our poll today showed more people (43 per cent) thinking the military action was wrong than those in favour of it (38 per cent)."

Moreover opinion has moved on whether the intervention is going well.The week before last, 57 per cent of the public thought it was going well and 19 per cent thought it was going badly.

Polling this week found 42 per cent thought it was going well, 34 per cent saying it was going badly.

It is hardly surprising. Though posed in liberal and humanitarian terms, there is no clear logic to the Libya intervention compared to other humanitarian crises and problems in the world. There are few clearly defined war aims and no sense of what the exit strategy for the intervention may be.

At a time when the public is being told there is no money for libraries, when the NHS faces its greatest threat, when the Royal Mail is under threat of privatisation and when our young people are being saddled with cuts and mounting debt, it is not hard to see that the public will take some persuading over the long-term that intervention is the right policy.

•The Andrew Lansley rap might have once seemed an unlikely hit this spring, but the NHS is very dear to the British people's hearts.

Lansley, Cameron and Clegg have been forced to announce a "pause" which amounts to a tactical maneouvre to work out how best to proceed.

The Tory-led government has opened a two-pronged attack on the NHS. Although it was claimed that NHS spending would be protected the experience up and down the country is of resources being squeezed.

That is borne out by the fact that although nominal health spending is planned to rise from £103bn to £114.4bn - just over 11 per cent - while over the same period the Office for Budget Responsibility projects that inflation will have risen by 22 per cent.

That's a real decline of 11 per cent.

The fundamental character of the NHS is threatened with change with the government looking for the biggest conceivable private-sector role.

Government policy is not about improving the NHS for patients but improving the profits of the private sector.

All over London we are seeing examples of Londoners concerned about the future of their local health service - such as in the campaign to oppose the closure of the A&E and maternity departments at Romford's King George Hospital.

It's one of the many reasons I'll be putting campaigns to defend the NHS top of the agenda this spring.

From bleak mid-winter to a cold Spring

Reports yesterday indicated the UK economy shrank by less than previously thought in the last three months of 2010 and that, according to fresh data from the Office for National Statistics, gross domestic product (GDP) slipped by 0.5% in the period. Its initial estimate for the quarter suggested that the economy had contracted by 0.5% - with heavy snow blamed for the slump. The 0.5% fall is the largest quarterly contraction since the second quarter of 2009. At the same time as the economy was shrinking, unsecured debt rose by £768m in February, driven by an increase in personal loans and overdrafts, whilst the number of remortgaging loans approved stood at 35,725 in February, the Bank's figures show. This was up from 33,972 the previous month, slightly up on a previous high in November, and higher than the average of the previous six months of 31,674. What does this tell us? Well what it indicates is that more and more people are finding it hard to live within their means. Rising prices and Government cut backs mean nearly 50% of mums say they'll be forced to use savings, earmarked for their family's financial future, to cover household bills over the coming year according to research from Family Investments. The research revealed a staggering 47% of mothers will be cutting their family savings by nearly £400 and channelling the cash into covering their day to day living expenses. And in order to 'balance the books' they will be slashing savings in three ways. Firstly short term savings, typically the money normally saved in instant access accounts, (for this summer's holiday or emergency car repairs); this will be cut by £240 a year. Then there are cuts to the kids' savings by £60 a year; and parents will also be sacrificing their pension savings, which for nearly 20% of us average around £160 a month, in order to boost the household piggy bank. This means a combined total of over £1 billion will be cut from family savings across the country as households struggle to meet spiralling costs on everything from food and petrol to energy bills. And it's those energy bills that are creating the biggest headache; up around £37 a month, with over three quarters of adults worried about how they'll pay them. Over one third of us worry about covering the cost of that weekly supermarket bill which has gone up faster than the rate of inflation, according to research from investment bank UBS, adding another £35 a month to our household spending. And filling the car for the daily school run costs more too; with petrol prices hitting a new record high now topping £6 a gallon, and with the current situation in Libya and the Middle East worsening it means we're unlikely to see pump prices slashed in the near future. For many, things are only going to get worse. Each day we are hearing about redundancies. 1. Sheffield Council are planning 273 redundancies; 2. RAF are predicting 11,000 redundancies 3. Hampshire County Council will lose 1,200 jobs 4. London Midland will lose 1,200 jobs 5. Warwickshire County Council will shed 1,800 jobs 6. Meanwhile in the Royal Mail, two London mail centres could close as part of a Royal Mail restructuring plan, which puts over 700 workers and 1,000 managerial jobs on the chopping block. A further 1,700 head-office posts could go in a future review. 7. Northern Rock is to make 680 more redundancies this year – meaning nearly 4,000 will have been axed since its crash in 2007. The list just goes on and on and on. And what is Cameron’s solution? A nothing budget that will do little to stimulate growth. As for building business? Well Citizen Dave had this to say: "This government is backing small firms, it's getting behind the start-ups, it's getting behind the doers and the grafters who are going to get our economy moving and create the jobs and the wealth and the opportunity that we need." Pretty words Dave, but where is the evidence? You’ve taken away the Regional Development Agencies, you’ve taken away superb organisations like the West Midlands Observatory … and the other observatories around the country, you have done nothing to encourage the construction industry which contracted 2.3% last month alone. Even the service sector – noted for being a substantial employer throughout the country experienced hardships, with a 0.6% contraction last month. What will it take to knock into Citizen Dave, the people’s toff’s head the fundamental notion that is strategy just isn’t working and it is hurting people. The answer may be simple. On May 5th the people will have the opportunity to go to the polls and voice their discontent. In that election I urge every voter to vote for the candidate best able to knock out the sitting Tory or Lib Dem councillor. In wards where the Labour candidate has the highest chance, vote Labour. But if the Green, or Independent candidate is better positioned to win, then vote strategically. Naturally I draw the line on asking anyone to vote BNP or for any of the neo-fascist parties that will put themselves up in May. If we can force Cameron to face a loss of over 1,000 councillors and the loss of all seats in the Welsh and Scottish assemblies he could be forced to review his position. We have a golden opportunity ahead of us – we must not waste it.

We are winning the arguments

(The following blog was first published on the website False Economy on 7th Match. It was written by Nigel Stanley and is published here in full).

Since the election, polling company YouGov has been regularly asking the same questions about the cuts. While they are not quite the questions that we would ask, they are still useful. Asking the same question allows us to see how public opinion moves over time.

The government started off wanting voters to think that the cuts are:

•being implemented in a fair way: "we're all in this together"

•confined to "waste" and back-office services

•the route to economic recovery; and

•inevitable: "we've maxed out the nation's credit card bill and now have to pay it off".

Straight after the election they were winning these arguments. But public opinion has now moved decisively.

Cuts are unfair
This chart shows how many people think the cuts are unfair. Immediately after the election only one in three said they were unfair. Now that has gone to almost two in three. That is a big shift.
Frontline services
YouGov ask whether you are likely to "suffer directly from cuts in spending on public services such as health, education and welfare". This seems a pretty fair definition of frontline services.

As this chart of those saying yes to this question shows, ministers have never won this argument. From the word go around 70 per cent have expected to suffer from the cuts. It's increased a little perhaps, but it has been remarkably consistent.
Bad for the economy
The government message is that cutting public spending gives room to the private sector to drive an export-led recovery.

This chart reports those who say that the cuts are bad for the economy. It was about one in three before the election, but is now over half. It's not quite as dramatic as the shift in fairness, but is still a big shift.
Too deep and too fast
YouGov have not asked questions about whether people think the cuts are inevitable on a consistent basis, but have now started to ask the questions I would have put from the word go.

We can't put them on a chart therefore, but here are the results from their poll of 20/21 February 2011.

A majority think cuts are necessary.

Necessary Unnecessary
55% 33%

But before ministers get too pleased, there is little support for their speed and scale (and we already know people think they are unfair).

Too deep Too shallow About right
50% 6% 27%
Too quickly Too slowly About right
58% 5% 26%

As people start to see the effects of cuts on their local services as council budgets are agreed, it is hard to see these figures moving back to the government.

Caring Conservativism - A new kind of Thatcherism

On a separate forum I was reminded of a speech made by Neil Kinnock back in 1984. Now I am no great fan of Kinnock. His witch hunt of the left and the expulsion of honest socialists who were supporters of the Militant Tendency was the second biggest travesty to hit the Labour Party this century (this first being the rewriting of Clause lV of the Constitution of the Party).
Having said that, in this speech he really hit the button.

He said:

If Margaret Thatcher is re-elected as prime minister on Thursday, I warn you. I warn you that you will have pain–when healing and relief depend upon payment. I warn you that you will have ignorance–when talents are untended and wits are wasted, when learning is a privilege and not a right. I warn you that you will have poverty–when pensions slip and benefits are whittled away by a government that won’t pay in an economy that can’t pay. I warn you that you will be cold–when fuel charges are used as a tax system that the rich don’t notice and the poor can’t afford. I warn you that you must not expect work–when many cannot spend, more will not be able to earn. When they don’t earn, they don’t spend. When they don’t spend, work dies. I warn you not to go into the streets alone after dark or into the streets in large crowds of protest in the light. I warn you that you will be quiet–when the curfew of fear and the gibbet of unemployment make you obedient. I warn you that you will have defence of a sort–with a risk and at a price that passes all understanding. I warn you that you will be home-bound–when fares and transport bills kill leisure and lock you up. I warn you that you will borrow less–when credit, loans, mortgages and easy payments are refused to people on your melting income. If Margaret Thatcher wins on Thursday– • I warn you not to be ordinary • I warn you not to be young • I warn you not to fall ill • I warn you not to get old.

As Citizen Dave’s cuts start to bite, his words are as relevant today as they were all those years ago. The poor, the disabled, the unemployed and the ill are all being hurt by Cameron’s plans. But before we lay the blame wholly on Citizen Dave, let us look at who is the philosophical ‘father’ behind these measures – none other than the silent man himself, Iain Duncan Smith.

During his period as leader of the Conservative Party he was ineffectual and lacking any charisma, but as a ‘backroom boy’ he has been central to the development of current Tory policies. His think tank, the Centre for Social Justice, has been at the heart of many of the current policies and for the last few years has acted as a resource to ‘humanise’ modern Conservativism.

The trouble is that it has all been a guise to bring about Thatcherism under another name. The proposed welfare reforms will not bring about a level playing field for all, they will introduce inequality and disadvantage. Meanwhile, leading businessmen will continue to avoid tax, multinationals will continue to make large profits and those with money will continue to milk the system.

Twenty seven years later and we still haven’t learned – you can never trust the Tories

Who care about Big Brother anyway?

Why are we so frightened of taking on the Tories and fighting their cuts? They have been in power now for almost nine months and in that time they have attacked our health service to such an extent the very existence of the NHS, as we know it, is threatened.

At the same time, they have guaranteed all the schools desperately in need of building renovations will need to live in squalor, whilst the middle classes luxuriate in their squeaky new academies. Younger kids will suffer too, as Sure Start programmes have their funds cut and childcare facilities dwindle.

Normally the Tories hold the needs of the military as sacred, but not any longer. Trainee pilots, along with a raft of other personnel, are heading to the job centre to join increasing numbers of people being forced to sign on.

Social care, police, climate change, transport and local services have all been ravaged because of the Tories love of the “smaller state” and a desperate need to keep spending to a minimum. So what have the unions done? Well, Unison ran a petition to collect one million names to defend services – last heard they were still collecting.

As for all the other unions? They have tub-thumped loudly enough, but in terms of real action … most of us are still holding our breath.

The Labour party hasn’t been much better. Ed Miliband has been largely ineffective at PMQs and his colleagues in the shadow cabinet might as well go and enjoy a winter break. No-one would notice if they went. At the recent student marches to defend EMA and oppose the hike in student fees, the number of Labour constituency banners were noticeable by their absence.

So its little wonder the general public isn’t angry. If the politicians can’t be bothered, then why should the electorate. On the whole the average Joe or Sally is too busy surviving on a day to day basis to worry about how to fight cuts.

I’ve been sat here today wondering why people aren’t getting more outraged each time they hear the news and I think I worked it out. What do you do if you think you are going to hear bad news? Well, one option is to fight, but if the likelihood is that nothing will change, then many will choose to opt for flight. Folk who go along this route try to escape the realities of their own misery by living out fantasies.

Many of these will have switched on daytime TV this morning and what are they greeted by? Programmes like “Wanted down under”, where viewers are shown lovely homes and sunny, happy lifestyles in Australia – a thriving future where everyone smiles and lives worried-free whilst enjoying barbies and good friends. Interestingly, they never showed any film of what life was like during the flooding.

Or, views might choose “Homes under the hammer” – a programme where ‘ordinary ‘ people buy cheap houses at auction and after some cosmetic changes, sell the house, making thousands of pounds profit. If they don’t sell, they might rent the property and live off the profit. Again the programme ignores why the house was on the market in the first place. In reality, it was probably because it was repossessed, leaving the original owner homeless.

If none of these programmes take your fancy, you can watch “Flog it”. A programme where ‘ordinary people take items they have found in their attic, or heirlooms that have just been hanging around. These unexpected little trinkets are then sold at auction. Not sure about readers to this blog, but in my attic there’s just a pile of old junk and rusty tools. No heirlooms here.

In the evenings viewers can watch Eastenders, Coronation Street or Home and Away – soaps that prove every time that no matter how hard life may seem, there is always someone worse off than you – so be grateful!

Don’t fancy the soaps? That’s OK, there’s always Big Fat Gypsy Wedding, NCIS or CSI – escapism at its finest.

We are being fed lies by the government, deceit by the politicians and the media help to perpetuate it. By offering us a diet of third rate nonsense, they allow the public the escapism they feel they need.

Remember George Orwell’s book “1984”? In it he described a totalitarian society where dissent was eliminated. In order to keep this harsh society intact, the Ministry of Truth offered every citizen an alterative reality. Well today, our ‘ministry’ sits in the corner and helps control our lives.

Just like Orwell’s world was controlled by Big Brother (BB), an idealized character that constantly watched over and supposedly protected everyone, so the government has become the new BB. As a result of their effective management of us through the media, we never argue or debate what they are doing – even when it is against our best interests.

In 1984, the society was controlled completely and lived according to two simple axioms. In 2010, it is no longer fiction and we have brought them into the real world. Today we are living them on a day-to-day basis:

Long live Big Brother
Ignorance is Strength

Rather than hating what is happening to us, the PR men and the media have convinced us there is always someone worse off. Instead of fighting back, we live in the security of known misery.

Anyway, you will have to excuse me. I would love to continue this argument and analyse how the cuts are affecting all of us, but “This Morning” is about to start ……

Cuts! Where is the opposition?

The addition of Andy Coulson to our unemployment statistics will hardly come as a shock to most readers of this blog. At the moment there is no evidence to suggest he had any involvement in the phone hacking scandal now being unravelled at the News of the World. Having said that, when a number of your senior team are accused of being involved in illegal acts, there is a very real danger the public will assume a ‘guilt by association’ factor.

Coulson will join a prestigious elite – the existing 2.5m people unable to find work in this country. He needn’t worry if he will have enough new colleagues either. With announcements yesterday that West Midlands NHS intends to enforce their mandatory 4% cut by reducing their workforce by 1,600, he will have plenty of company.

He will be joined later this year by hundreds of thousands of local and central government workers who will be axed because of cuts imposed by Cameron and Clegg and their sycophants.

It is rumoured they will be opposed by the trade union movement. Already Unison has instigated their “Million Voices” campaign which, of course, rocked the corridors of power (do you detect any cynicism?).

On top of this, the TUC are planning a mass demonstration – their “A Future that Works” rally, as a gesture of solidarity for young people. It’s a shame they couldn’t have shown a little more of this solidarity when students were marching against university fees and the withdrawal of EMA!

I dare say they are saving themselves for the big event – the TUC “March for the Alternative” on March 26th. No doubt they will be hoping for mass support, but there remains a huge niggle – why has it taken them almost 11 months to develop any real campaign against this Conservative-led government?

Let’s face it, the left have been caught wrong footed and as a result we have allowed the Tories to get away with murder. What we have let them do to us:
 An extra 100,000 unemployed with thousands more to follow,
 a 2.5% increase in VAT,
 huge cuts in our schools and health service, despite Cameron insisting before the election that frontline services would be protected.
 the decimation of our local libraries
 up to 8.9% cuts in local council funding (mainly to Labour authorities).

I could go on.

And what did we do to oppose it? Nothing!

Oh, I agree we established the Coalition for Resistance and there’s also the Right to Work Campaign – both worthy bodies, but how much impact have they really made? Do you see Eric Pickles shaking in his boots? Has Iain Duncan Smith looked embarrassed by the news of rising unemployment? Has George Osborne shown any signs of worry that inflation is gradually steering towards 5% with a raft of price increases running alongside reducing many to penury?

No!!

If the left is to oppose this government we will need to mobilise far more forcibly. This isn’t a nice walk in the park and we have to stop treating it like some fun-filled jamboree. Our unions need to organise mass demonstrations – taking a lesson from the experience of the recent student marches. Similarly, the Labour party needs to be seen to be far more at the heart of this opposition, with active involvement in campaigns, local cuts groups, sit-ins and strikes.

Don’t forget. as always, the Tories have one single mission – to destroy the working class movement. They have already begun and not without some success. If we don’t make our stand soon they will ride through us and totally destroy any chance to fight against them for a generation.

The price of dogmatism

In a briefing paper prepared for Unison and the TUC, Tim Horton and Howard Reed systematically threw aside Osborne’s last claim to imposing a progressive Budget on this country. In the report, the authors showed how the average annual cut in public spending on the poorest tenth of households is £1,344, equivalent to 20.5% of their household income, whereas the average annual cut in spending on the richest tenth is £1,135 or 1.6% of household income.

Now it doesn’t take a genius to look at these figures and soon realise how low-income households are going to be the ‘net losers’ over the next few months. This is something Labour was saying before the election and has consistently shouted from the rooftops since. It’s the typical Tory game – when the going gets tough – the working class will pay.

Remember all that talk about ‘we will protect front-line services’, well now that’s going down the tube too. Already the President of the Association of Chief Police Officers has acknowledged the cuts will impact on frontline services and although he felt 28,000 job losses amongst police officers was ‘alarmist’ he (and Nick Herbert, the policing minister) was forced to admit things would be harsh over the next few months.

Precisely how many grave diggers, Police support workers, hospital cleaners or social workers will lose their job remains uncertain, but with 750,000 jobs due to go, we can be certain a good number of frontline workers will lose their jobs.
Of course, the Tories would say I am being over the top and that many of these people will find jobs in the private sector. One has to wonder how they hope to attract private enterprise into each of the regions when today they announce the abolition of the Regional Development Agencies. Take for example Advantage West Midlands (one of those RDAs) – they generate £8.14 for every £1 we invest in them.

Now in an area where unemployment is running at 9.3% and unemployment in the 18 -25 year bracket is running at about 26%, that isn’t a bad return on your investment.
The West Midlands needs investment and the support of our RDA as there continue to be a number of areas where the recession has impacted badly on communities - Bridgnorth, Cannock Chase, Newcastle-under-Lyme, North Warwickshire, Staffordshire Moorlands, Tamworth and Wyre Forest, while urban areas (e.g. Birmingham, Stoke-on-Trent) have seen the largest total increases in unemployment; rural areas (e.g. Wychavon) and some market towns (e.g. Uttoxeter, Whitchurch) have experienced larger proportionate increases in unemployment. Some of the more rural wards are seen as vulnerable because of a reliance on one employer, or because of a large proportion of residents commuted to other areas and worked in vulnerable sectors (Source: Hansard, 2009).

And if the Government scrap the RDAs, how will they ensure there isn’t a mismatch within locality or region between work skills and job availability? Can we assume that private enterprise will self regulate in such a way as to ensure that throughout the country more jobs become available in equal measure across all regions?

There is no sense to these cuts. They are based on ideological whim rather than need and it will be people who will pay the price. It remains to be seen how many people Cameron will see thrown onto the scrapheap before he can sleep peacefully. To prevent this happening the government have consistently argued their flagship Work Programme will be the ‘cure all’ aimed at getting people back into work. From the outset they have insisted it will be adequately funded and in line with Cameron’s open government, we know it will cost the country between £0.3bn and £3bn. Now call me cynical if you must, but is it only me that can see a huge discrepancy between the two figures? Are they really saying they don’t know the real cost?

As the days turn into weeks this government and its right wing policies are almost laughable and would be if the strategies they intend to employ didn’t hurt people so badly. We can only hope they disappear into the wilderness very soon.

Conservatives, Liberals and the cuts

Cameron and his Con-Dem buddies would have us believe that this is a government 'for the people and by the people'.Yet, let's take a look at some of the facts. In the recent statement outlining the details of the £6bn worth of savings in government spending, Osborne emphasised there would be no effect on frontline services.

Now, socialists throughout the last election were constantly arguing that this was untrue, but regrettably we failed to convince the electorate. Now let's take a look at how these cuts will affect people - for example, if we look at the prime minister's own constituency of Witney. Here the cuts to the local authority will only account for approximately 1.7% of funding - no great loss and residents will see little effect on services for the elderly, for the vulnerable or for the jobless. However, if we look at Harriet Harman's (the acting Opposition leader) constituency, we see that these cuts will amount to no less than 16.3% of fuding, simply because in that area they have more vulnerable people, more elderly, great social need and more unemployed.

Similarly, today on the Andrew Marr show, Ian Duncan Smith outlined how he was going to get Britain 'back to work'. But this new programme will have a budget that has automatically been cut by £535m before the Prequalification Questionnaires and Invitation to Tenders for new welfare to work programmes have been published. Of course, IDS has said that with new efficiencies he will 'force' private contractors to improve on their performance. Perhaps now is a good time to point out to IDS that if 10 people go for 3 jobs, that still leaves 7 people unemployed. Currently in the UK we have 2.6m people unemployed and if his figures are correct, these numbers will soon be joined by a further 1m people who were on IB and will now be seen as available for work. Against this, DWP advise that there are currently only 600,000 vacancies. Even if private contractors fill every one of those posts, it will still leave 2.9m unemployed.

Evidence once again that the Tories are a party for the rich and never for the working class.