Vocal Voices

This company was on the brink of collapse last year, long before the pandemic, but just managed to survive. It is now going to go bust with the possible loss of 13,000 jobs.

I really do feel for those about to be put out of work, my ex was once a manager in Topshop, but we taxpayers have been propping up this and other failing businesses for months on end through the furlough scheme and the only person to benefit this time is Philip Green.

Somebody, somewhere in government, must have known this was about to happen and should have pulled the plugs on this and other failing / failed businesses long ago. Instead we have ploughed in £billions to massage the real unemployment figures.

I wonder why?

Political short termism?
Try and keep the job losses down, try and keep the deaths down because they are scared of negative headlines?
Somebody down the road is going to have to deal with the aftermath, but those in power always think in five year cycles - the time between elections.

There is a very simple answer here. Furlough is not the governments fault, it is the fault of the Pandemic. However unemployment, no matter how it happens, is the fault of the government.

The press, the opposition (at the time), the pundits, Xperts, everyone says it is the governments fault when unemployment happens. Even if it is an eventual consequence of something out of the governments control.

The Government can keep people in work by letting the pandemic run riot and overwhelming the NHS and killing a few hundred thousand. Or the government can close the whole country down and destroy the economy and keep most people alive. Not all, remember, most.

The point is we, the people, don't want either. We want both. We want our jobs and economy and we want to be completely protected from the virus, no deaths. Any deaths and the Government is shite. Any jobs lost and the Government is shite.

This is a totally childish view of the world, but it remains the predominant view today.

So, as the furlough rolls back, people are losing jobs and companies are going bust? What's new? I predicted this months ago. If you sit on the fence, you get a sore crotch.