The looming jobs bloodbath is a damning verdict on a misjudged mini-Budget from Chancellor Rishi Sunak which was stronger on gimmicks than real help.
Burger King, John Lewis and Boots are joining the wave of companies shedding staff.
This illustrates both the economic carnage inflicted by coronavirus and the Tory failure to boost demand and protect employment.
The hollow jobs, jobs, jobs mantra of the Government is really redundancies, redundancies, redundancies and the danger is mounting that Britain will return to the Tory-led devastation of the 1980s.
Behind every job lost is a worried worker without a wage and possibly a family, anxious about how they will pay their bills. And if they aren’t earning, they can’t spend as much, putting businesses at risk.
To break the vicious cycle it is vital that saving and creating jobs becomes the Government’s top priority.
Cruel betrayal
Pulling the plug on free TV licences for the majority of over-75s is a grotesque betrayal of our older generation.
The BBC is carrying the can but the real villain is a Conservative Government when it broke a solemn manifesto and turned the broadcaster into a cost-cutting office of the Department Work for Work and Pensions.
Next time Boris Johnson showers praise on the wartime heroes, remember that under his Government many of them lost what was rightly free and were told to pay £157.50 a year.
The BBC and the PM should tremble. An old soldier might refuse to pay and denounce this mean theft from the dock... in full uniform.
Weigh to go
Gyms and swimming pools in England are reopening in the nick of time and Wales and Scotland would be wise to follow.
After the £10 off meals on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays in August we might all need to exercise more on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.
