The help Mr Cameron would axe

More on the the precise nature of the extra help from Government that Mr Cameron says we ‘can’t afford’. As economists Paul Krugman, Danny Blanchflower and others have said, we still run the risk of people losing their jobs, despite the encouraging signs that the shot in the arm we gave the economy is working. We’ve focused especially hard on making sure we do everything possible to help people keep their jobs – or get back into work fast.

For example, the £5 billion extra for the Department of Work and Pensions includes £1.8 billion extra for JobCentres – which have helped 2 million people get jobs, since last November. Over £1.1 billion for the Future Jobs Fund, which will help create 150,000 jobs, and over £1 billion for Flexible New Deal and the 6 month gaurantee that delivers extra help to those out of work for a while. On top of that has come extra, to help people meet their mortgage payments or get housing benefits, when for example they’ve lost their job.

What we learned in the 1980s, is that if you don’t help people get work, they stay unemployed for a long time, and end up costing the country more. I thought we had learnt the hard way, that is a price not worth paying.