Just a few random thoughts on Labour’s plan for jobs (see link below). It begins with this statement:

The Government was too slow into lockdown, too slow on testing and too slow to protect jobs. Now, the Chancellor’s one-size-fits-all withdrawal of furlough risks creating a jobs squeeze that will put people’s livelihoods at risk.

Absolutely right. And on lockdown, many Tories knew that it was being imposed later than it should have been. Ken Clarke had well-informed friends who told him, two weeks before it began, that he should lock down now. He did.

However, Labour failed to oppose the early lifting of the lockdown, in fact it explicitly supported it. Arguably, it is because of that early lifting that the government is having to impose local lockdowns and targeted quarantines now, with a policy of lifting here and locking down there, at short notice and with more than a hint of chaos.

Still, having got that out of the way, the first point of Labour’s plan is:

1. Fight for jobs:

fix the furlough scheme to support people in the worst-hit industries.

For sure, “fix the furlough scheme” is one of the things we should now demand. But this is too vague. The demand should be to “fix the furlough scheme” by making it compulsory on all employers who want to lay off workers who can’t work from home and by keeping it in place until a vaccine is produced and being used successfully. This will cost money. But Labour must have the courage to spell out a strategy that costs more. If it doesn’t, it will quickly become an extension of the Tory party. I know Starmer doesn’t want to “make unreasonable demands”, but this isn’t unreasonable. We’re in a crisis the like of which we haven’t seen before.

2. Back our businesses:

with a £1.7 billion fightback fund to stop firms going under and save our high streets.

This is good – except that there’s no detail and £1.7bn doesn’t seem enough, considering the government’s past failures have put us into a longer crisis than might have been necessary. Again, spell out a strategy that costs more.

3. “Leave no-one behind:

with targeted support for areas forced back into lockdown.”

This is good, and will be supported by most people. No detail though.

4. Keep workers safe:

by protecting workers’ rights, by boosting sick pay, making workplaces safe, and giving our NHS and care services the resources to stop a second wave.

Absolutely. But, again, there’s no detail. In particular, workers’ rights are absent in many workplaces. They need to be given in the first place and then protected. The way to do that is to campaign for union membership everywhere and make union recognition mandatory in all workplaces. When I worked in France at the fag-end of the UK’s Thatcher period I was amazed to discover that no employer in France could refuse to negotiate with a union rep. Attacks on workers’ rights have taken place in France under Macron and I’m not sure of the current state of play. But everything is possible, whether there or here, and we should demand everything. By the way, looking at Point 2 above, they’re not remotely beginning to be  “our” businesses unless the measures suggested here are in place. Saying that they are is a Labour version of Cameron’s “we’re all in this together”. We weren’t then, and they’re not “our” businesses now.

5. “Drive job creation:

by investing in infrastructure, speeding up progress to zero-carbon economy and improving access to skills and training.”

All this is good. What its value as a promise may be, I don’t know: on speeding up progress to a zero-carbon economy, Starmer has shelved Labour’s previous target of 2030. Let’s wait and see, he says. Wasn’t that Stanley Baldwin’s motto?

Jobs, Jobs, Jobs