Rover and out
ONCE again, allies of Chancellor Rachel Reeves were quick to get the excuses in.
This time it wasn’t Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump or Brexit to blame for economic growth being MINUS 0.1 per cent in September, but a cyber hack at Jaguar Land Rover which slashed car manufacturing.
To be fair, the hit taken by JLR was significant. But the fact that this single act of sabotage was able to push the economy into reverse shows just what a state we are now in.
Reeves’s response was to boast that Britain “had the biggest growth of any G7 economy in the first half this year”.
The key word is “had”.
The truth is that there is now strong evidence that her first Budget has tanked the economy.
Any early green shoots have been stamped out by the idiocy of the Jobs Tax and reckless Government spending, including whopping no-strings pay deals for train drivers and doctors.
Labour’s workers’ rights reforms will also force businesses to offer sick and holiday pay from day one and could see companies sued by employees demanding to do their jobs from home.
That will drive up costs which, just like April’s National Insurance rises, will simply be passed on to consumers.
What a moment, then, for the Government to be preparing to unveil another Budget bursting with tax increases.
We might soon look back on yesterday’s dismal statistics as the good old days.
Fatal failings
HOW many more times must we hear that a failure by police, social workers and other authorities to share crucial information has cost a vulnerable child their life?
The catalogue of fatal errors leading up to the murder of Sara Sharif by her violent and sadistic father and stepmum make for deeply troubling reading.
Especially agonising is that care professionals didn’t step in to help Sara — forced to wear a hijab to cover her bruises — because they feared being accused of racism.
In a civilised society, those witnessing the actions of sick child-abusers — whatever their background — should always act.
Sick and tired
LIKE Arthur Scargill’s striking miners in the 1980s, the Marxists presiding over the resident doctors’ strike are leading their members into oblivion.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting is right to call the BMA’s greedy pay demands morally reprehensible.
The union has already lost support from the public and fellow medics.
For the sake of patients and taxpayers, they must be defeated.
