ANDREW GRIFFITH: Almost four million people are signed off with no requirement to find a job. That's not fair on all the hard-working taxpayers who subsidise those languishing on benefits
Labour is failing those who want a hand up whilst ramping up handouts like there's no tomorrow. Yesterday's jobs bloodbath shows Britain is approaching breaking point.
Business can't take much more economic punishment from this Labour government all too happy to hand it out. But I fear worse is still to come.
It's shocking that almost four million people of working age are on benefits with no requirement to find work. That is just not fair. Not fair to those people who will be languishing on benefits forever. And certainly not fair to the hard-working taxpayer who is subsidising their lifestyles.
But Labour doesn't seem to have realised that if you want to get people off benefits, there need to be good jobs to go to. And it is only private businesses that can provide sustainable jobs: we cannot afford ever more public sector jobs propped up by unaffordable borrowing.
But since taking office, this socialist government has waged all-out war on Britain's businesses. The manifesto-breaking, £25billion jobs tax punishes work and hits those trying to get their first job the most.
No surprise that in yesterday's figures, it was in the 25 to 34-year-old age group where unemployment is growing the fastest.
The family business death tax also means that those firms are now having to save up for a tax bill they can't afford – or simply decide to stop growing. And employers are bracing themselves for the 300-page job-killing Employment Rights Bill – the clue is not in the title – which is set to do the exact opposite of what it says on the tin.
It will give unions the whip hand and take us back to the 1970s. Not a single real business supports it, but Labour doesn't care: its union paymasters cannot believe their luck.
Anyone who hasn't fabricated their CV would be able to see the obvious outcome of this cacophony of incompetence is firms not hiring, the economy slowing and an explosion of people on benefits. And lo and behold – that is exactly what has happened.
We warned them not to do it. They ignored us.
Now we are warning them not to go ahead with even more tax rises. If they weren't going to listen before they should listen now that families are having to tighten their belts and jobs are being lost.
But our beleaguered Chancellor has her head in the sand. Not one of her Budgets has lasted more than six months and she has just found out she has torn a £50billion black hole in the public finances. Whilst emergency spending cuts are what's needed, her Labour MPs are hungry for more tax and even more spending.
Never mind this summer of discontent. Britain: unless this shower of a government is forced to change course, brace yourself for four more years of discontent.
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