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Near where we live there is a brand new complex of smartish looking business premises. At the time, they had just one occupant: Shaw Trust. And Chubby was possibly the first person to walk through their doors. They gave him a piece of paper outlining the change in our finances if he were to work twenty hours a week. He would gain just over £110.40 a week in pay, from which £1.14 national insurance and £1.04 income tax would be deducted. He would lose £98.45 in long term incapacity benefit

All of the tongue-clucking of the economists will never convince voters that granting more power to business will improve their lives. They know from bitter experience that what employers want is more work for less pay, and they will use the means at their disposal to reverse the trend