Friday, June 15, 2007

Labour achievements: 2.5 million more jobs...

Ten years of Labour Government has seen dramatic falls in dole queues - and two and a half million extra jobs created across the country.

Here in the East Midlands, figures released yesterday show that claimant count unemployment fell by over 38,000 to 60,828 in the ten years from May 1997 to May 2007.

It's a proud record of helping people back to work year on year and testament to Labour’s commitment to a strong and stable economy - and help for families through successful employment programmes like the New Deal.

If Tony Blair had promised full employment and 2.5 million new jobs in 1997, he never would have been elected.

For the record, Cameron's Conservatives still oppose the New Deal and would cut Labour’s investment in helping people back to work.

26 comments:

Anonymous said...

Even by Govt figures, youth unemployment is HIGHER than when the New Deal was introduced. Get real Phil.

fairdealphil said...

do share them.

Anonymous said...

In a speech to the Labour Party Conference on 1st October 1996 Tony Blair promised that ‘By the end of a 5 year term of a Labour Government I vow that we will have reduced the proportion of national income we spend on the welfare bills of social failure. This is my covenant with the British people. Judge me upon it. The buck stops with me.’ and addressing the House of Commons on 17th March 1998 Gordon Brown promised ‘The New Deal is the most ambitious programme of employment opportunities our country has seen.’

Since then however there are two million economically inactive people who want to work; nearly half of young job- seekers who leave the New Deal for Young People end up back on benefits within a year; and almost 2.7 million people of working age are claiming incapacity benefits - nearly three times more than the number of people claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance.

Anonymous said...

Try either of these links

http://www.reform.co.uk/website/pressroom/news.aspx?o=29

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/05/14/nbrown414.xml

Some of my favourite quotes...

"The numbers of young people "not in employment, education or training" are also higher than in 1998 and rising. They are up 246,000 on the low point recorded in summer 2001 and 131,000 above the level that Labour inherited in 1997."

"Despite Labour spending almost £2 billion on the New Deal, the number of people aged 18-24 out of work has risen by 70,000 to 505,000 since its launch in 1998."

"The numbers of young people "not in employment, education or training" are also higher than in 1998 and rising. They are up 246,000 on the low point recorded in summer 2001 and 131,000 above the level that Labour inherited in 1997."

Unless you have some figures to prove the success of the New Deal?

fairdealphil said...

geoffrey:

do me a favour...

4 million on the dole under your lot...remember what thatch said:

'if its not hurting, it's not working...'

she consigned entire communities to the scrapheap.

consett or corby for example.

both devastated by the tories, today rebuilt thanks to labour.

fairdealphil said...

michael....

i see you appear to rely on the torygraph for your stats...

fairdealphil said...

another view on the success - or otherwise - of Labour's New Deal..


http://www.ministryoftruth.org.uk/2007/05/15/frankonomics/

Anonymous said...

Are the Telegraph statistics wrong Phil? Or is that remark an attempt to distract from the central point? The article you cite it a badly written vindictive long excuse. Even it admits...MORE young people are unemployed now than when the New Deal was introduced. The rest is just flannel. You spent 1.9 billion. Employers took the money, gave the kids subsidised jobs, then fired then when the subsidies stopped. Pretty obvious stuff if you are an employer.

But then Labour never really did get Economics.

Anonymous said...

All Labour have done is patronise the working class and the vulnerable for fifty years and now the chicken is coming home to roost.

fairdealphil said...

michael:

while i accept that people generally do not believe that crime is falling, they can see with their own eyes that long term youth unemployment has been virtually eradicated over the past ten years.

A decade ago, teenagers were leaving school with no hope of ever achieving a proper job.

That is no longer the norm.

On the wider point, dole queues have been dramatically shortened -and millions who were a drain on the economy now contribute.

This is the change that has allowed the vast increase in spending on front line services like the NHS and schools, rather than on benefits.

fairdealphil said...

Geoffrey:

<<<< All Labour have done is patronise the working class and the vulnerable for fifty years...>>>

You mean you're against the first ever minimum wage which the Tories said would cost a million jobs...?

In fact the NMW has been successfully introduced at the same time as more than two million new jobs have been created and now not even the Tories would dare scrapping it...

Anonymous said...

Phil - youth unemployment is higher, even by Government stats. Even the link you gave me acknowledges that. Look at the numbers.

Use a calculator if you like.

Anonymous said...

Phil,

The number of people classed as economically inactive is at an all time high (7.5 million).

People don't believe fiddled jobless figures anymore.

They come to their own judgement and I believe that the economically inactive figure is the best one to go by.

fairdealphil said...

geoffrey:

Not sure whether that means you think the first ever National Minimum Wage has been a good idea or a bad idea that you would wish to scrap...?

Anonymous said...

I think his point is very clear. Unemployment is at an all-time high. And people know it.

fairdealphil said...

michael:

most sensible people who live here see the evidence for themselves:

our country is better thanks to Labour's unprecedented econonomic stability and growth...

...Tory boom'n'bust which gave us of mass unemployment, wages of £1 an hour, and entire communities consigned to the scrapheap are over.

the british people will not risk putting the clock back to tory time.

Anonymous said...

Youth unemployment higher - glad you have stopped arguing against the proven facts.

As for the election - you might be right(though it would help if someone would wash Gordon's hair). But then I bet you said the same thing about your electorate - before they kicked you out. Learn the lesson Phil, Labour arrogance will be the end of it.

fairdealphil said...

More people in work than ever before - and a minimum wage for the first time in our country.

Highest employment rate in the G7.

As more people are moved from welfare to work, the savings on unemployment benefits invested in education for all.

Social security bills for unemployment halved since '97 - £5 billion already saved and a further £4 billion saved on interest payments by paying off the national debt left by the Tories.

Our young people now leave education with real prospects of a proper job - not condemned to life on the dole as they were under the Tories when Thatcher's medicine was four million on the dole and a trebling of numbers on incapacity benefit.

The longest period of uninterrupted growth in modern history.

Living standards for all rising.

More to do in Labour's fourth term, but real progress in our first three.

Anonymous said...

Phil, you can continue to repeat the same point if you choose. Both we have already explain why your figures are phoney(moving people from the unemployed count to "disabled"). Even accepting the phoney figures, we have already viewed a link which shows youth unemployment is HIGHER.

So just who is it you are trying to kid? I would find some new arguments some time soon, or you can forget the fourth term dreaming.

fairdealphil said...

you're obviously reading the wrong links...try this one.

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/anthony_giddens/2007/06/treading_carefully.html

Seventy-five per cent of the potential labour force is in employment in the UK, compared to 63% and 64% in France and Germany respectively; and this figure has been achieved above the floor of a minimum wage that has been rising in real terms. Youth and long-term unemployment are far below the levels seen in the two large continental countries.

Anonymous said...

But still at an all-time high in this country. The point I already made actually.

The rest is your usual flannel Phil.

fairdealphil said...

Remember Boys from the Blackstuff...?

Yosser 'Gissa Job' reflected the desperate state of an economy with four million on the dole and when millions of kids left school with no hope of ever finding a decent job.

It was Made in Britain, under the Boom'n'Bust Tories.

We can't risk going back to those dark days.

Anonymous said...

Very scientific(!).

fairdealphil said...

michael:

not scientific at all. that's the point.

it's the green shoots of recovery syndrome.

Anonymous said...

So the figures are going against you, but the TV schedules have improved. Can't see them queueing for this one Phil.

fairdealphil said...

let's wait and see what happens next eh?