Why furlough is a false economy as Rishi Sunak comes under renewed pressure – Yorkshire Post Letters

From: John Riseley, Harcourt Drive, Harrogate.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak initiated the furlough scheme in March last year.Chancellor Rishi Sunak initiated the furlough scheme in March last year.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak initiated the furlough scheme in March last year.

The IMF and others are calling for a further round of furlough; that is to say more state aid for lame ducks. You could argue the blow to hospitality has come from government-imposed lockdowns, so compensation out of public funds is appropriate.

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The Government has interposed itself between the experts and the public, turning a nuanced and mixed message into a relatively clear but arbitrary stop or go.

Should furlough be reintroduced to help businesses deal with the downturn caused by the Omicron variant of Covid?Should furlough be reintroduced to help businesses deal with the downturn caused by the Omicron variant of Covid?
Should furlough be reintroduced to help businesses deal with the downturn caused by the Omicron variant of Covid?

Had it instead left people to think for themselves, some proportion of them would have responded with caution and we’d still have seen a downturn in demand for some services. Many businesses require so high a utilisation rate for viability that this would have been fatal to them.

You may say the man or woman in the street does not want such responsibility or is simply not up to it. But they have not been trusted with it: how are they going to develop this capability? Business leaders are shameless enough to plead shortage of jobs and shortage of staff at the same time. Harold Wilson tried using Selective Employment Tax to get workers to where they were needed. Covid could do that for us if we didn’t have an allegedly Conservative government meddling in the free market.

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