The four day week thing isn't as barmy as it sounds
In many types of work, it wouldn't be, Frumpety. In my own former workplace, colleagues would swap places on the rota and do double shifts so that they could do a four day week or even a three day one. As long as it didn't undermine operational effectiveness, managers were fine with it. Jezza's pledge goes much much further. He wants to give everyone the right to decide exactly when they'll turn up for work and when they will go home. Can you imagine it? One person only wants to work between 2.15pm and 3.35pm and might pop in between Corrie and Doc Martin but only if the kids are in bed. Someone else only wants to do the 10-12pm shift but not on Tuesdays or whenever there's an R in the month. What would it do to your workplace? How would your patients feel? Would they be fine with that too? Or would it be chaos?
a cost neutral investment"
Ah yes, cost neutral. A fiscal sleight-of-hand much favoured by Gordon Brown. For several years as Chancellor, he bestowed inflation-busting pay rises on my little corner of the public sector, selling his plans to Parliament as "cost neutral". And so it was. The overall salary bill remained the same and the union chaps (they were always chaps - a little diversity wouldn't have gone amiss) rubbed their hands at the fantastic deal we were offered. I pointed out that pay rises for existing staff were only possible because starting salaries for new entrants were being slashed to compensate. Lower starting salaries would, in time, mean we'd struggle to recruit and staff shortages would follow, just as surely as night follows day. They didn't care. It was jam today. And yes, that's what happened.
All these promises sound great but only if you disengage your critical thinking and squint through one eye so you can't see the invisible small print.
Name me one Labour government in living memory that practised fiscal responsibility. Just one.