Friday 22 February 2008

Wharrabout the Wurkers?

I know nothing ought to surprise me about this New Labour government, but every now and then something that you knew was there all along just bobs up and hits you on the nose. The Broonites are now trying to steamroller a group of Labour MPs who are trying to ensure that temporary agency workers have the same rights regarding pay and conditions as permanent ones. A no-brainer, you’d have thought. What part of “minimum wage” and “statutory paid holiday rights” don’t they understand? But no, a Labour Government is opposing this and fighting to defend the right to exploit.

It has to be said that Polly Toynbee is, as usual, spot on on this subject. Good old Polly can talk as much shite as anyone, but she’s the only journo I can think of who is prepared to grind on with the necessary persistence about poverty and low pay. Even on the Grauniad, among thousands of idiots whittering endlessly on about the Middle East, she seems pretty isolated. She wrote a book about low-pay jobs, Hard Work, which bears comparison to The Road to Wigan Pier.

She’s on good form this morning: pointing out that being “flexible”, a great Government buzzword, always means workers being flexible about their holiday entitlements, not employers being flexible about working hours; that good employers are perfectly happy with the equality proposals; and that the MPs running this campaign are not just the “usual suspects” from the hard Left. (One of the MPs involved, generally a Blairite loyalist, was once, in an earlier incarnation, my own boss, and so I can vouch for him as a decent employer, though sometimes sailing very close to the wind regarding sexual harassment and invariably three sheets to it from lunchtime onwards.)

So even in the world of Blairo-capitalism views vary widely. And who do we find holding up the bastard end of the spectrum of opinion? The usual crew of rich whingers, led by the CBI (Capitalist Bastards International), banging on about how giving some rudimentary protection to the lowest paid will “destroy jobs and damage competitiveness”, the same refrain they’ve been singing ever since someone first suggested taking eight-year-olds out of the mills and mines. Competitiveness! These people aren’t interested in effing competing. Their only argument is “Well, if I’m not allowed to win 36-0 every game, I’m going to take my ball home.” The rich don’t just want more money than us: they want it all. Every penny going into a working person’s pocket is an affront to them.

Can we have a real Labour Government, please? Polly for Prime Minister, anyone? Denis Healey back as Chancellor – let’s hear those pips squeaking again.

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