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Showing posts from September, 2020

A firm message to bosses: don't change things for the sake of it

From L-R: Matt Dawson, Sue Barker and Phil Tufnell (Image: Radio Times) If there's anything we've learnt over the past six months is to not take our so-called 'healthy job status' for granted. As the lockdown has resulted in companies not receiving enough income to survive and the government's furlough scheme falling short in helping struggling businesses, unemployment rate has increased to 4.1 percent from 3.9 percent in July. Meanwhile, 2.7 million are claiming benefits (August 2020), a 120 percent increase from March. Soon, we'll find out the greater picture of how the pandemic has impacted people's economics once new figures are released in October and November. But I'm not going to dwell on people losing their jobs which was deemed, sadly, inevitable. I'm going deeper into those who have lost their perfectly safe jobs; those who have done nothing wrong apart from the fact that their bosses decide a change of personnel is needed, and today. I w

The future of our young people has never looked so uncertain

Gavin Williamson (R) with Prime Minister Boris Johnson (Image: TES) In 2015, I argued that a Conservative government would never find a way to woo young people when they were excluded in key investment announcements and cut life-saving services . Fast forward five years and the Tories continue to find ways to really peeve off our youth.  What has the government done this time? In my eyes, the ministers are guilty for trying so hard to say to students that they're on their side, to then achieve the total opposite. When the Covid-19 pandemic began, it was clear that the health and education systems were to be severely tested. Thankfully, for the time being, the NHS has gone through the past six months without feeling overwhelmed or in a position of collapse. Of course, the Health Service faces challenges over the coming months, with a possible second spike of Covid-19 cases, an expected backlog of mental health and cancer referrals and the start of flu season, which killed more th