Peter Rhodes on work, more work and lots more verification at the BBC
Figures to ponder. Number of full-time Government staff currently working in Whitehall: 95,000. Target number after latest staff reductions announced this month: 83,000. Number of British civil servants administering all of India and her 300 million population in the 19th century: 1,200. Does work simply expand to fit the workforce available?
Watch more of our videos on ShotsTV.com
and on Freeview 262 or Freely 565
Meanwhile, ministers are agonising about the vast number of Brits who claim to be unwell and refuse to look for work. I wonder if at the root of this work-aversion is a race memory of a very old, and oft-broken promise. It was explained to me once by an old hack, a child of the 1930s who recalled the blissful future people imagined: “Automation would set us free. We'd work a couple of hours a week and spend the rest of our time writing poetry and making mandolins.”
It never happened. Since the 1930s, in a single lifespan, our population has soared from 44 million to 70 million. This year, Britain has a workforce of 37 million, up by 403,000 jobs on last year and yet we are still locked in the belief that work is the natural condition of humans and everybody should do it. It's more like a religion than economics. Who invents these jobs? How many of them need to be done? Anyone for mandolin classes?
