Party Leaders’ debate ignored worklessness

The Party leaders’ debate on live TV last night scarcely mentioned the state of the labour market or the Parties’ ambitions to overcome unemployment and economic inactivity. The questions covered immigration, crime, MPs’ expenses, schools, armed forces, NHS and care. Despite much discussion about the state of the economy, jobs and public finances, only Brown specifically mentioned unemployment … and he did that four times.

Cameron attacked Labour's plans to raise National Insurance contributions next year, saying that “they would cost jobs”. He also said Labour was content to continue to “waste money for another year before tackling the deficit.” Brown said that Conservative plans to take money out of the economy in the current financial year would run the risk of a "double dip" recession. He recalled the 1930s and 1980s saying that the Tories were a "risk to the recovery in this country". Clegg argued that both Brown and Cameron were “obsessed by the idea that the deficit could be tackled by removing waste from the public sector.” He said the problem could not be addressed by cutting the bill for “paper clips and pot plants in Whitehall.”

However, nothing was said about returning to a more healthy labour market, reducing worklessness, low pay or insecure employment. The BBC has published a transcript of the full debate at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/pd...