CHARLOTTE GILL
Over the weekend, you may have seen headlines about Labour paving the way for a four-day week. Angela Rayner reassured the British public that it would be “no threat to the economy”, but you have to wonder if everyone feels the same way. Coincidentally (a bit too coincidentally, in terms of timing) Sadiq Khan has just offered Tube drivers a four-day week in return for them calling off industrial action scheduled for November 7th and November 12th.
As with so many of Labour’s proposed policies – such as the Assisted Dying Bill and farmers’ inheritance tax hike – they always have a random feel to them, as though sprung upon the electorate at a second’s notice. Before you have time to ask “who, what, where, why?”, Kim Leadbeater or whoever next has the first draft of her bill ready.
Sadly, there’s going to be more of this. The way these policies were ‘introduced’ reflects the quiet nature of Left-wing lobbying. Campaign groups that most taxpayers have never heard of have been pushing for all sorts of things behind the scenes. They are extremely effective at turning their ideas into Government policy, and often work in concert.
The four-day week drive is no different. There’s even a private limited company titled the Four Day Week Campaign 2024 to see it through, which is based at a cooperative in East London (along with the Migrants’ Rights Network and Renters Union, among many other activist groups). Interestingly, in the year ended March 2024, the campaign received a £10,000 grant from the Scottish Government, along with other types of funding. The campaign also helpfully links to a job website titled fourdayweek.co.uk.
The Four Day Week campaign (company) is “supported by” the New Economics Foundation (NEF). Again, most people will have never heard of the NEF, but it’s received taxpayer funding (£564,360 between 2019 and 2023), and its CEO recently appeared on BBC Question Time to argue that the U.K. should consider paying reparations (perhaps he could start by returning that £564k?) On its website the NEF has a video titled Demand a Four Day Week, accompanied by an article that reads: “We are pleased to be part of an alliance building a new consensus that more free time is an ambition to bake into the rules of the economy – working with trade unions, researchers and campaigners in the U.K. and across Europe.”
Could Compass form part of this “alliance”? Clive Lewis, the Labour MP, is a big fan of this activist group – which has links to Extinction Rebellion – even hiring a Campaigns Assistant who would work three days a week for him, and two days for Compass to help “build democracy and fight the climate crisis”. In its report ‘The New Settlement for a better society‘, Compass advocates “a shorter working week – either a three-day weekend or shorter hours”, which it says would “create space for caring responsibilities, social activity, citizen action, volunteering, creativity, rest and respite.” How delightful!
Some haven’t even waited for the four-week go-ahead. In January last year, the Liberal Democrat-run South Cambridgeshire District Council had a four-day week trial, which was then evaluated by the University of Cambridge and University of Salford Manchester – whose research falls under the Digital Futures at Work Research Centre (which received £6,491,489 in taxpayer funding for 2020-25). Researchers found that the council had improved in 11 areas, with staff turnover decreasing by 40%. Imagine what it could be with a three-day week!
Is the four-day week the ultimate ‘shrinkflation’? While council tax constantly increases we now face the prospect of a three-day-weekend public sector. It doesn’t seem like there’s much point in arguing, so deep are the Left-wing networks that have ensured the four-day week becomes Government policy (even in writing this article I have discovered the existence of “Four Day Week Global”), nor does it matter if the public hate the idea. For all their talk of “fixing the foundations”, Labour and its acolytes have cemented their power very well.
Video explainer here.
The four-day working week – and how left-wing lobbying works pic.twitter.com/01tknFsqcW
— Charlotte Gill (@CharlotteCGill) November 9, 2024
This article (It’s Already too Late to Stop the Four-Day Week) was created and published by The Daily Sceptic and is republished here under “Fair Use” with attribution to the author Charlotte Gill
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