In Westmonster, Claire Fox explains how she was relieved that Rishi Sunak extended the Job Retention Scheme. Why should ordinary people pay the cost for the government’s decisions to close down the economy?
I am not of the ilk who argues that this appeals to lazy workers who will wallow in being paid to do nothing. Many millions want to go back to work, but while employers are sorting out making workplaces safe and so on, furloughing is a safety net that at least eases the pressure of the prospect of impoverishment.
But – and it’s a big BUT – I am worried that extending the scheme until October also eases pressure on the government and avoids finding the fastest possible way of relaxing the lockdown.
What we all need – the working class even more than others – is to get the economy working at full steam as quickly as feasible, to mitigate the dire prospects of a likely economic collapse. However, the debate about even a gradual return to ‘work as normal’ has led to a rather topsy-turvy rhetorical class-war.
Many of my peers on the left, including those of us who fought in the Eighties for ‘the right to work’, have now become militants arguing against a return to work. Are they oblivious to the challenges ahead?
Read the full article here.