Sunday 2 August 2009

Mind the gap

Silly me! For a while there, I believed that the government was seriously strapped for cash. Why, just this past week, de facto Prime Minister Lord Mandelson said that public spending plans would have to be cut back.

Then we hear of a plan for the government to finance gap years abroad for 500 of this year's graduates, who won't be able to find jobs at home because of the current depressed state of the economy. (This, of course, is in no way the result of the dumbing down of university degrees noted in a report by a committee of MPs this very weekend). The gap year scheme will fall under the remit of....Lord Mandelson.

In other news, over 600 workers at a factory on the Isle of Wight are in the process of being made redundant. The factory makes wind turbines. The government has pledged itself to create "green" jobs and is banking on a massive expansion of wind power to help reduce carbon emissions. Maybe Lord Mandelson can get his 500 graduates to explain what's going on here, because I sure as hell can't figure it out.

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