Kendall blitz on welfare’s well fair
“IF YOU can work, you must.”
Liz Kendall’s blunt mantra would make common sense in any era.
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But the welfare minister’s crackdown this week on Britain’s workshy could not come at a more critical time.
The economy is stalling like a frozen Transit van.
Inflation is edging up once again.
And there is no sign of growth since Labour dropped its £40billion tax bombshell in the Budget.
The idea that we can keep splurging billions a year on young people who refuse jobs is just crazy.
Under her plans, nearly a million 18 to 21-year-olds not in employment, education or training will be told their benefits will be axed if they won’t get out of bed.
Her scheme is a welcome step but it is just scratching the surface in the long term.
Britain’s ballooning sickness benefits bill is now predicted to rocket to £63billion by 2029.
That’s more than two per cent of the UK’s entire GDP.
Many of those signed off sick are young people whose mental health is further damaged by a lack of purpose.
It is absolutely crucial that the Government gets to grips with the 3.8million on long-term sickness benefit.
Unless millions more are moved out of welfare and into jobs, our growth prospects will be permanently choked.
Reap what you sow
DEMANDS by MPs and their union allies for state cash to cover the Chancellor’s Budget hikes are showing bare-faced cheek.
They say MPs need the extra money to pay their own staff after swingeing National Insurance rises.
We wonder if pub landlords, who will see business rates rocket after the Chancellor’s smash and grab raid, would agree.
A vast majority of MPs back Labour’s business-bashing Budget.
So it is hypocrisy to hold out the begging bowl.
They shouldn’t get an extra penny of taxpayers’ cash.
Art of the peace deal
BRITS will not back any US peace settlement with evil Russian despot Vladimir Putin that is bad for Ukraine.
That’s the clear message from a new poll responding to speculation that Donald Trump will strike a deal to end the war.
The US President-elect is right that we cannot carry on spending hundreds of billions of pounds on this terrible conflict.
But peace cannot come at the price of surrendering values like freedom and democracy to a murderous tyrant.
