Tuesday 11 September 2007

The "Best Article in the World"

Brown firm over public sector pay

Press Association
Monday September 10, 2007 2:53 PM

Gordon Brown has risked the wrath of the unions by insisting he would not undermine the economy by making "unaffordable" promises on pay.

Amid growing discontent over public sector wage deals, the Prime Minister said financial "discipline" was essential to maintain growth.

In his first speech to the Trades Union Congress since entering No 10, Mr Brown also outlined plans for bringing the UK closer to full employment than ever before, with a crackdown on migration to ensure "British jobs for British people".

Mr Brown said the Government would "always put stability first".

"No loss of discipline, no resort to the easy options, no unaffordable promises, no taking risks with inflation. So let me be straightforward with you - pay discipline is essential to prevent inflation, to maintain growth and create more jobs - and so that we never return to the old boom and bust of the past," the Prime Minister said.

Mr Brown said that if inflation was allowed to get out of control, the country could go back to the "same old familiar pattern" of spiralling prices, high unemployment and public spending cuts that there had been under the Tories.

"Because this Government will take no risks with the economy I'd only make promises we can afford. For me it will be stability first, now and in the future - stability yesterday, today and tomorrow - and that will mean more jobs."

Mr Brown said he hoped this could be "Britain's century", and wanted to see the economy move towards producing highly skilled posts rather than lower skilled.

He put forward a package of measures which would be implemented "rapidly" to create 500,000 jobs. Previously a lack of available posts was the major barrier to people working, but now there were more than 650,000 vacancies waiting to be filled, he said.

"The bigger barrier to full employment is not the lack of jobs but the lack of skills," he said.

Copyright (c) Press Association Ltd. 2007, All Rights Reserved.

1 comment:

Jason Welker said...

Lucas, rather than copying and pasting the entire article into your blog, post a link to it then offer your own summary and intro to your analysis. How am I supposed to see what YOU plan to do with this article if you just post the whole thing to your blog? You have not done your homework yet!