Another piece of legislation that blinked today was the minimum wage, now up to £5.05 to most people.
Granted, that's still less than most people would want, and if someone offered it to me as an hourly rate I'd turn it down. So, principled objections are presumably off limits.
Nevertheless, in an economy that appears to be turning downward you can't help but wonder at the wisdom of increasing companies' cost bases without offering some sort of hint as to how they're going to fund this extra money. When the legislation first came in there were a lot of people predicting trouble and job losses; they were wrong that time, and you've got to hope the same will happen again. Last time, though, the economy was buoyant - this time we'll have to see.
