Blog: The other u-turns Hammond could have made

Today the Chancellor made a screeching u-turn, abandoning his plans to raise National Insurance for the self-employed. It was a decision that revealed the weakness of Philip Hammond’s position. He’s still new to the job, and still prone to having his chain yanked by the Prime Minister and – perhaps more importantly – by nervous backbenchers. So now we know that this Chancellor and Prime Minister are “for turning” – yet considering the vast errors they’ve made so far, there are far more about turns that could and should be made by this government. People will be questioning why the Chancellor hasn’t changed his mind about proper funding for social care, and decided to spend more than the insufficient £2 bn he offered last week. Or why he hasn’t reversed over his failure to fund the National Health Service properly at a time of extreme need. It’s obvious to anyone familiar with the NHS bursary – which was cut saving just £52m a year – that when more nurses are needed this change was prime for a u-turn. And when public servants are facing yet another year in this decade of pay caps and freezes, while inflation is on the rise, the government could and should have u-turned on public sector pay. And then there are the services that UNISON members provide, starved of resources and with huge job losses forcing staff to do more, with less – while all the time being paid less. If the Chancellor really wanted a break from his predecessor and to make a u-tur...
Source: UNISON meat hygiene - Category: Food Science Authors: Tags: General secretary's blog News budget Philip Hammond Source Type: news