Who can forget the Spitting Image version of Pinball Wizard?
"He's a pinstripe wizard
He got to be a twit
He's a pinstripe wizard
He talks a lot of complete bullsh7t".
Well Lord Young is back as Cameron's "Enterprise Tsar" to join the war against red tape and to conduct "a brutally honest review" of employment law.
As a curtain raiser Lord Young has already given us a taste of what is to come. The CIPD wrote this week:
"The Conservative peer – who has just reported back to the coalition with his recommendations for overhauling health and safety regulations – told the Today programme that he would be examining the unfair dismissal system.
He said he would be consulting on extending the time someone needed to be employed before being able to bring a claim for unfair dismissal, which is currently 12 months.
“Back in the 1980s when we did that, the result was that employment starting shooting up again,” Lord Young told the BBC Radio 4 show. “I want to find out what small business people themselves think about this and then we’ll think about it.” "
This report is of course simply a political exercise to give the impression that consultation and some degree of thought have taken place. You can write Lord Young's report now and here goes:
1. Increase timeline for unfair dismissal to two years
2. Reduce the compensation payments for unfair dismissal
3. Add cap for compensation for discrimination cases (note it is currently uncapped)
3. Reduce statutory redundancy payments
4. Abolish maximum working week
5. If he is feeling particularly bold - abolish minimum wage. This is more likely to be couched as "look at minimum wage".
None of the above is surprising because it has been if not overtly stated by David Cameron certainly hinted out throughout his leadership and more to the point it is standard Conservative Party policy. It is an indication of how ineffective the LibDems are at reigning in the excesses of the Tory party that the prospect of any of the above being resisted is remote.
Depressing then that the young will now not only have to leave higher education with huge debts, find it desperately hard to buy a house and receive low pensions, they are likely to have a rotten start to their working life as well.
