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Wednesday Diary: The Genius of the Welfare Cap

Zoe Kalus argues that the government's proposed welfare cap is electoral genius and that we shouldn't rely on McDonalds or technology.

By Zoe Kalus

25 Jan 2012, 09:30

McDonald's Jobs

* Sometimes it's breathtaking to see great politics at work.  This week, I was bowled over by the brilliance of Coalition's canny move on welfare reform.  When I saw Paddy Ashdown on Sky News last Sunday declare he'd vote against the Government on over the proposed welfare cap, my immediate reaction was that the Coalition were in trouble again.  Poor old Nick Clegg has to sacrifice another slice of his soul to cling onto the Deputy leadership, I mistakenly thought.   On speaking to the Director of the IFS Paul Johnson the following day, I realised how wrong I was.  The savings the Government actually makes by putting a benefits cap in place are miniscule, barely a percentage of the overall welfare bill.  However, the support the Government gets from the public on the issue is massive.  That's where IDS has been so very clever.  26K is a number we can all understand.  Most my friends would be delighted to live on earn £35,000 before tax (£26,000 cap being after tax).  So hearing that £26,000 is the cap on cash provided by the Government for doing absolutely nothing seems huge.  Argument won.  Even if the Government's nowhere near tackling the welfare crisis in this country, it feels like they've made huge progress on the principle, leaving Labour floundering once again.   
 
* On the same issue, I do find it so frustrating to hear how keen the Government is to get everyone off benefits and into work and yet offers no real hope for jobs.  The most likely source of employment for school leavers currently appears to be McDonalds.  It was a horrible sight to witness Nick Clegg at Ronald McDonald HQ delightedly shaking the hands of young employees lucky enough to be on the training scheme.  I'm not saying a job at McDonalds isn't valuable.  Any job is valuable.  It's just that to constantly go on about the fantastic opportunities for school and university leavers is irresponsible when they're aren't enough jobs to go round.  Yes, young people have to lower their expectations and they're doing so but the Government rhetoric should be more realistic in achieving this goal.
 
* Interesting to read that Tom Stoppard has no desire to get to grips with a computer or as he prefers to call it; 'Twitter machine.'   The subject caused quite a debate in the BBC newsroom.  Is he just a stubborn old fool who won't admit to being too scared to harness new technology or does it prove his head is so full of abundant ideas he needn't worry about what's trending on Twitter?  I'm having a similar debate with my mum at the moment as she insists on planning my wedding and yet has no interest or desire to use a computer or 'the google' as she likes to call it.  I've taken to using bridal based blackmail to get her to buy an ipad such as 'you won't be able to see any of the links to dresses and cakes without one.'  True to form mum is completely ignoring my advice.  Of course she can plan and organise a wedding without a computer.  Just because I live in London and spend all day tweeting and emailing and forwarding links, doesn't mean weddings can't be organised without a 'twitter machine.'  Long live my mum and Tom Stoppard for their stubbornness.