As the Leader of the House of Commons, Lucy Powell comments to the British Beer and Pub Association’s summer party on the Tattershall Castle carry weight, sadly they were so heavy they almost sank the very boat the party was taking place on.
This Government has consistently revealed it’s ability to be unable to listen to common sense, or even experts, when it comes to business and the economy.
Difficult decisions
For Powell to stand there and tell a sector that employs huge numbers that they’re “putting more money into people’s pockets” is insulting.
It’s the businesses that are putting the money into people’s pockets, not the Government, and at the same time, it’s the Government that is picking the pockets of the businesses it’s taking the credit from.
And let’s be honest, while they might be claiming to increase incomes, they’re ignoring the fact those increases are being swallowed up by the inflationary increases needed to pay for those increased incomes.
To have the gall and stand there and tell the audience that she is “hearing us” and that the Government has had to take “difficult decisions” in the budget to get people back into work is incredible.
Feeling desperate
Those difficult decisions have discouraged employment. The hospitality sector is having to cut costs to cope with the increases this Government has added to employment, and some of those costs are in jobs - reduced hours, less shifts, less employees.
Unemployment, last time I checked five minutes ago, is rising, not decreasing, but that’s not the reality this Government wants to face.
It would be laughable if it didn’t want to make you cry.
Yes the industry is feeling “raw” - it’s feeling desperate and it wants a Government that actually faces up to the reality of the situation they have been a key part in creating.
Stop burying your heads in the sand and start pulling some simple levers to allow this sector to be part of the solution, rather than part of the problem.
