One of the features
of the 2017 election campaign was the way in which Theresa May’s big
announcement on social care turned to dust on exposure to daylight and
scrutiny. And one of the features of politics more generally is that
politicians rarely learn from the mistakes of others, preferring to believe in
their own unique ability. That inability to learn about the dangers of
announcing policies which haven’t been thought through has given us Sunak’s
National Service policy. The policy, which was categorically
ruled out by one of Sunak’s ministers only three days before being
announced as government policy, has been torn
apart for its back-of-the-envelope costings and criticised
by former military commanders as unworkable.
Sunak and his advisers
seem not to have considered the possibility that ministers being interviews might
be asked questions on the policy as opposed to being allowed to spout
meaningless slogans, with the result that they have been sent out unbriefed and
ended up busking with incoherent and inconsistent answers. Putting those
answers together, we now know that the scheme would be compulsory, but with no
means of enforcement for those who choose to ignore it. Any ‘punishment’ for
those declining to participate is expected to be meted
out by employers not giving jobs to young people who can’t demonstrate
their participation, and fast-tracking those who have, whether they can do the
job or not. Curiously, it was only a matter of a week ago that another of Sunak’s
‘loyal’ troops told
businesses to consider people solely on merit and forget all other factors.
Neither position seems to be easy to reconcile with the Tories’ traditional
position that businesses themselves know what’s best for them and should be
allowed to make their own decisions free of political interference.
Still, the good news
is that, uniquely amongst all politicians, Sunak has a plan to which he is
working. Just as well. Imagine how much chaos he could create – in his own
party, never mind for the rest of us – if he didn’t have a plan.
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1 comment:
Well, the Looney Tunes season has been declared open, with Little Risky Sunak great plan for National Service . Clearly this came from a focus group session where magic is dreamt up in minutes with no chance that it will work.
Not to be outdone the Labour Leader – The Knight of the British Empire produced a novel plan to put a head tax on learning. Now, I was privileged to have some private education – Ysgol Sul and Band of Hope on Wednesday night, so this along with Jewish and Muslims, all might have to pay up – good luck with that.
I can confidently predict that the Leader of the Liberal anti- Democratic Party, another Knight of the British Empire will produce a policy that will get him into deep water.
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