Ebenezer Osborne?

How much longer is this Government going to pursue its catastrophic economic experiment that is having such a devastating impact on jobs and prosperity?

More families are facing Christmas without a job than at any time since the Conservative Party was last in power in the early 1990s.

Last month saw unemployment hitting a new high and the depressing fact is that there is no end to this misery in sight. In the last three months alone, for every job created in the private sector 13 jobs were lost in the public sector.

But what is so extraordinary is that the Government continues telling us that there is no alternative, even though its policies are going so spectacularly wrong.

Youth unemployment is up by 54,000 and now stands at 1,027,000. Long-term unemployment amongst people aged 50 plus has gone up by 21.3% since January and the number of unemployed women is the highest it has been since 1988.

The truth is the country is crying out for a different approach. Labour’s five point plan for jobs and growth offers a way for the Chancellor to halt the frightening economic tailspin that the Government’s policies have caused.

On Wednesday, the House of Commons debated a Labour motion urging the Government to reconsider its refusal to adopt Labour’s five point plan for jobs and growth. Labour MPs argued that getting people back to work was a better way to reduce the deficit and secure Britain’s future economic prosperity.

But the combined voting strength of Conservative and Liberal Democrat MPs meant that Labour’s motion was defeated.

The five point plan includes creating 100,000 jobs for young people and building 25,000 affordable homes using funds raised from a tax on bank bonuses.

It also incorporates bringing forward long-term investment projects, temporarily reversing January’s VAT rise and a one-year cut in VAT to 5 percent on home improvements.

These measures would generate jobs and growth, as would our proposal to give every small firm, which takes on extra workers, a one-year national insurance tax break.

But if the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats won’t listen to Labour, they should at least take account of the considered view of the International Monetary Fund. The IMF has said that if the economy continues to stagnate the Government should change course and slow the pace of cuts and tax rises.

However, it seems this Tory led Government is determined to plunge us into a new Dickensian era. There are certainly considerable parallels with Charles Dickens 1843 novel, ‘A Christmas Carol’ and George Osborne seems to be doing his best to emulate Ebenezer Scrooge.

People will remember that Scrooge was a cold-hearted, tight-fisted and greedy man, who despised Christmas and all things which gave people happiness. The evidence of the last 18 months suggests that Scrooge would have certainly fitted the job description for a modern-day Tory Chancellor of the Exchequer.

But in the end, Ebenezer Scrooge did at least redeem himself by changing his ways and I hope George Osborne will do likewise. I have just sent him copy of ‘A Christmas Carol’ in the hope that he adopts the moral of this Dickensian tale. Time will tell if he does.