‘Labour’s still not working’ – rarely has it seemed more appropriate, says Nick Ferrari

It’s not as if there’s been a shortage of gloomy statistics of late. Migration continues to soar to a level as unimaginable as it is intolerable. In employment, in the motor sector alone, Ford announced 800 job losses two weeks ago and around 1,100 will become unemployed after Vauxhall announced last week it will close its van plant in Luton.

Add in to the mix that inflation has ticked up again and growth has slumped to an anaemic level, and the data is about as downbeat as it can get. But here’s one number that’s the crowning blockage in the sewage pipe… 100 billion!

With a record 2.8 million people off work with “long-term sickness” the tax take required to fund sickness benefits in just four years will be £100billion. To put that into context, that’s more than the budgets for our schools, courts and police combined.

And to add insult to – possible – injury, that’s only the sickness part of the benefits bill. The cumulative total is already vastly beyond that figure. It is a shameful indictment of our nation that we have become an outlier in the post- world of employment. No other leading nation has seen the number of jobless rocket at this level.

As the (immensely proud) son of parents who both served in the Second World War, it is baffling to me that a country that rolled up its sleeves to “Dig For Victory” and endured years of post-war austerity is now the laziest in the developed world by many measures.

And what do you suppose this government is going to do about it? Having revealed his first job was clearing stones from a farmer’s field, Sir – who’d be more likely to be stoned by farmers in a field at the moment – waxed lyrical about the importance of work before announcing his grand plan to tackle joblessness.

Prior to launching the employment White Paper, he vowed a “war on benefits Britain” to rein in the outrageous spending. That in truth it amounted to a modernisation of Job Centres, another empty promise of a benefits crackdown and the chance of apprenticeships at the Royal Shakespeare Company is beyond pitiful.

Particularly so, when you realise one in seven Britons aged 16 to 24 is not in school or a job, nor training for one. That represents 946,000 people. There was no hint of a mild rebuke, let alone a “war”.

This is because the idea that people wilfully choose to live off the state even when they are fit enough to work is totally alien to Labour.Rather, they push ever further for more government interference, with more people on the government payroll who then come to crave and rely slavishly on their state coddling.

Just 24 hours after that lacklustre announcement concerning joblessness, we were then told of an initiative soon to be launched in Manchester in which long-term unemployed who are overweight will be given these new highly desirable slimming jabs for free. These injections cost around £200 a month, way beyond the dreams of the many who will go out to work in low-paid jobs to fund the benefits of the unemployed, who can then sit at home waiting for the delivery of their free slimming injections.

That famous slogan “Labour Isn’t Working” was created for the Conservative party 46 years ago, for the 1979 general election. Rarely has it seemed more appropriate.

The nation’s ‘gone nuts’ over Wicked

Confirmation last week, as if it were needed, that the nation’s gone nuts. The British Board of Film Classification has put a “discrimination” trigger warning on the new hit film Wicked as one character is mocked for being green.

Young witch Elphaba, played by Cynthia Erivo, is bullied and excluded for having green skin – but who knew “green skin discrimination” was such a common problem? The censors also helpfully warn that “talking animals are persecuted in a fantastical society”. With due “trigger warning” to canine lovers, the world truly has gone to the dogs.

Trump’s victory brings peace

Be in no doubt, the reason and Hezbollah have suddenly managed to set deep divides aside and agree a welcome truce which, at the time of writing is still holding, is down to a global development from earlier this month: ’s victory.

While liberals choke in fury on their quinoa and free trade coffee, the reality is the world now has a glimmer of a chance of peace. In any event, the killing has stopped …and there can be no doubting the benefit of that.

BBC’s ‘slavishness’

The puerile slavishness of the to much of the government’s messaging has even managed to pervade that “everyday story of country folk” The Archers. After farmer David Archer talked about “a lot of anger about this new tax inheritance on farms,” a different character responded,“We need those taxes to pay for things like the NHS.”

Next week’s episode: “Why heat pumps are all the range, down on the wind farm!”

We are tired of weather warnings 

Weather bosses are puzzled as to why Storm Bert caused so much damage, despite alerts being issued 48 hours in advance. They need to realise that as we are warned constantly about everything from using sunscreen to taking regular breaks while driving, we may be a little worn out over warnings!

Eco-obsession 

It was only last week I questioned the wisdom of the government’s headlong drive into meeting dubious net zero targets with the ban on sales of petrol and diesel cars in just a few years’ time.

In the last week, another 1,100 jobs are to go as Vauxhall closes its Luton van plant. How many more jobs are to be sacrificed on this altar of eco-obsession? This really is the road to nowhere.