Picking up the slack: Labour's economic doomsayers are proved wrong, again

By Mark Wallace
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There's always been something of the religious mantra about the Left's refusal to believe that the British private sector was capable of picking up the slack by creating jobs to replace those lost in the public sector.

Perhaps it's a lack of imagination which leaves them unable to conceive of jobs being created through mechanisms which they don't understand. Perhaps it's egotism, driving a belief that their actions in government will always be more effective than anything the private sector could do. Perhaps it's simply a desperate hope that economic suffering will help them to prosper politically.

Consider the following six quotes, from senior figures in the Labour Party, prominent commentators and Ed Miliband:

Ed Balls, Hansard, 12 October 2011:

"We were also told that public sector job cuts would be more than outweighed by the rise in private sector jobs, but I am afraid that employment is falling because the private sector has been unable to deliver the recovery we were promised. It has been a complete fantasy."

Ed Miliband's "predistribution" speech, 6 September 2012:

"I'm afraid the Government believed its own propaganda – that they could cut as far and as fast as they liked and the private sector would pick up the slack."

Alan Johnson's first speech as Shadow Chancellor, 18 October 2010:

"...in the current climate there's nothing inevitable about the private sector picking up the slack, when the public sector starts laying people off." 

 SImon Jenkins, The Guardian, 27 October 2010:

"David Cameron and business leaders claimed in unison that the private sector would "take up the slack" of some half a million workers ejected from the public sector. They cheered, but nobody could illustrate how that would happen."

Westminster Digested, The Guardian's "satirical" take on politics, 1 December 2011:

 "Cameron:...Only a moron would have imagined the private sector would suddenly pick up the slack in the worst depression since the 30s!"

David Blanchflower, in the New Statesman, 16 March 2012:

"The private sector isn't picking up the slack"

Then consider the new figures released today by the ONS, which show that:

"Private sector employment has jumped by 1.3million to a record high of 24.1million under the Coalition Government – while public sector employment has fallen by 423,000. But last year the increase in private sector jobs was almost five times the fall in public sector work."

So despite Ed Balls' fervent hopes, it turns out the private sector could and did take up the slack - and then some.

To paraphrase a great Norwegian: Karl Marx, John Maynard Keynes, Keir Hardie, Gordon Brown, Eddie Izzard, Len McCluskey...can you hear me, Polly Toynbee? Your boys took one hell of a beating.

Guardian journalism disqualified for foul play

By Matthew Barrett
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There was a story in the Guardian this morning, aimed to portray the Government as hypocritical, praising the success of Britain's Olympians, while undermining our future medal chances by selling off school playing fields. The newspaper reported:

"Ministers have approved proposals to sell off a London school's playing fields, including six tennis courts and a football pitch, despite mounting criticism of the coalition's planning for an Olympic legacy. The land at Elliott school in Putney, south London, is being sold off to pay for a major refurbishment. It brings the number of school playing field sell-offs approved by the coalition to 22. The Guardian revealed government figures on Monday which show that the sale of school sports fields continues even though ministers declared in the coalition agreement that they would seek to protect them."

However, the Department of Education is in fighting form. They have responded, disputing the figures. The Department says that of the 21 (not 22) playing fields the Government has approved for disposal, 14 belonged to schools that have closed, and four were part of sites that became surplus when existing schools amalgamated. Of the other three:

• One was surplus marginal grassland on the school site, the sale of which allowed investment in the school library and sports changing facilities.
• One was leased to a company to redevelop and improve a playing field for the school’s use that had poor drainage and was under-used. As a result of the development, the school's playing fields now include four 5-a-side pitches, two 7-a-side pitches, a full sized football and hockey pitch and a six-court indoor tennis facility. The school also profited from private hire of facilities outside school hours.
• One was due to be leased to an athletics club to improve sporting provision for both the club and the school, although the project did not go ahead in the end.

Ed Miliband wants Labour to become an energy supplier. Would you trust them to handle your electricity?

By Matthew Barrett
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Ed Miliband, in his interview with the Guardian this morning, came out with a rather bizarre proposal. He said that Labour is considering "organising the bulk purchase of cheap electricity to sell at a discount" to ordinary households, to be distributed through Labour's grassroots:

"Miliband said: "It is an outstanding idea. It might involve working with, or emulating what [the activist organisation] 38 degrees and Which? magazine are trying to do, which is to sign up people to bulk buy energy from the energy companies.

"We are thinking of going to the energy companies as the Labour party so that 'responsible capitalism' is not just an idea, but something practical. We think we may be able to deliver it through our grassroots network.""

Given that Labour have hardly done an inspirational job as a political party, attempting to juggle Westminster politics with something as complex as being an energy supplier would not seem to be a logical next step, and it's doubtful consumers would take Miliband's proposal seriously. 

Charles Hendry, the Minister of State for Energy and Climate Change, has issued the following statement, pushing back against Miliband's new idea:

"Labour seem to under the delusion that they are a trusted brand like Which?, but why would anyone buy their electricity from the people who bankrupted the economy? Labour had 13 years to deal with the energy market, but on their watch energy prices skyrocketed. It's all very well for Ed Miliband to talk about cutting bills, two years ago he was in the Cabinet, as Energy Secretary, and yet he did nothing to help families with their bills."

While Miliband is focused on energy bills, it might be worth someone pointing out to him that by not adopting the Government's Feed-in Tariff reductions for small and larger-scale solar panels, Labour's plans would mean an extra £90 a year for the average household's electricity bill.

After this morning's news from Toulouse, can we have a little less criticism, please, of Michael Gove?

By Paul Goodman
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I haven't been inside a Jewish school as an adult - my visits as a Shadow Spokesman on Integration and Cohesion didn't take me to one before the last election - though I certainly have as a child: I have a swimming memory of staring uncomprehendingly at Hebrew script at a liberal synagogue in north London.

So I haven't seen the daunting security measures taken by Jewish schools in Britain.  Anyone asking whether these are really necessary has an answer this morning from France: a school teacher, a 16 year old boy, a seven year old girl and an unidentified child have been shot dead in a Jewish school in Toulouse.  The gunman made off on a black scooter.

The Left's next target is Michael Gove

By Paul Goodman
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Yesterday, John Rentoul wrote that Michael Gove could be a future Conservative leader:

"Last week, [Gove] told Standpoint that he was "constitutionally incapable" of it. Yet it is possible to see how Johnson or Osborne might not be the first choice to succeed Cameron when a vacancy arises. The other day I suggested that Gove should be moved to sort out the disaster of NHS reform. But that may not be the limit of what he can achieve."

So did Toby Young:

"In a rash moment, I bet Nigella Lawson a large sum of money in 2003 that Boris would be leader of the Conservative Party within 15 years. That bet's looking safer now. However, in a three-way contest between Boris, Osborne and Gove, my money would be on Gove."

Charles Moore praised the Education Saturday the day before:

"Mr Gove deserves a lot of credit. It is very noticeable if you deal with him that he has a network of support outside government which most other ministers lack. He has built a coalition of advisers and friends who see how much he cares and so want to help him. They are, in that sense, unfashionably ideological. They have a project and – which helps morale – an enemy... Mr Gove offers an attractive combination – complete loyalty to the Cameron modernisation, but a Thatcher-era conviction politics as well. It is extremely powerful. Unfortunately, in the present Cabinet, it is virtually unique."