Duped or gutless?

The SMF is saying that Cyclop’s u-turn may well be more of a slight dodge, concluding;

a report published by the Social Market Foundation suggests that any feasible package could only compensate a proportion of those who lost out from the changes.

If this turns out to be the case, the labour rebels must be feeling pretty stupid. Either they were lied to, and were gullible enough to believe anything Cyclops and Darling were saying, or they were telling porkies to the media in order to avoid a damaging government defeat and possibly their own jobs. I couldn’t give a monkeys either way, but it does seem particularly perverse to take money in the form of taxation from the poorest, and then give some back in the form of credits and such, perverse that is, unless you are trying to create a client state.

One of the possible ‘adjustments’ being muted is an increase in the minimum wage to compensate, on which the Guardian chirps;

And young workers could be compensated by an increase in the national minimum wage for 21-year-olds, at no cost to the Treasury.

I wouldn’t bet on that, if I were you. Increased labour costs may well result in employers looking to cut down hours, or otherwise save on labour, which would have most definite effects on the amount the treasury will be able to steal take.

Of course, every cloud has a silver lining ~ the many posts on statist websites, such as labour home, that received yesterday’s news with a triumphant ‘right, that’s sorted, now let us unite against the nasty Boris et al’ look a tinsy bit silly. Or cynical.