Lead story

Fixing the job stats

by Daphne Liddle

IAIN DUNCAN Smith, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, on Wednesday was clearly delighted to announce an apparent fall in unemployment statistics of 14,000 between October and December to 2.5 million, according to the Office of National Statistics (ONS).

When he appeared on Sky Television News to crow about it, to her credit, the news presenter asked him about the numbers who were in part-time work but who really wanted full-time work. Duncan Smith laughed and claimed that 80 per cent of those in work who wanted full-time jobs had them.

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Editorial

Leading the class fight

THE CAMPAIGNING group Fuel Poverty Action staged a magnificent protest outside the Department of Energy in Whitehall last Saturday, supported by many people with disabilities, pensioners and other very low income people. These are people at the bottom of the income ladder for whom the profiteering of the six big energy companies and constantly rising costs for heating their homes really is a matter of life and death.

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