Hero or Zero?

I see that Labour – including their leader – are again making a big thing out of what are known as 'zero-hours contracts',  i.e. without a fixed number of hours-per-week (or however specified) contracted within one's terms of employment. They say they intend to ban them.

This is a bad policy, as a lot of people (including many University students) find this style of employment suits their personal circumstances, needs and preferences very well. Taking this option away would disadvantage a large number of people.

This, though, is ideological, and fits in with what I call 'Lefty TroLling' – everything they intend ultimately boiling down to 'TRL' : Taxation, Regulation, Legislation. Banning is one of Labour's favourite forms of Regulation. Of course, it's primarily topics that suit their ideology and political ambitions, whereas other (usually much more important) matters are left out of this style of governance...

Whatever – Labour say zero-hours contracts are A Bad Thing (though clearly they are not, though had loopholes allowing exploitation while they were in government, later fixed by the current Coalition Government) so – perhaps as a way of sweeping their own laissez-faire attitude to the subject under the carpet – they wish to outlaw the practice. I imagine there will have to be exceptions, but essentially that's it.

They are claiming that they'd never employ people on that basis themselves – but wait a minute! No fewer than sixty-eight of their own Members of Parliament have been doing so, as listed here, including such notables as Andy Burnham, Ben Bradshaw, Vernon Coaker and (perhaps most significantly of all) Rachel Reeves. Oh dear! Hypocrisy writ large...

UPDATE: This is another example of the Labour/Unions 'one rule for you' policy.


Overall, Ed[ward] Miliband is clearly trying to paint himself as the 'hero who will stop this shameless exploitation of the workers, the common man', and his party of poodles is dutifully echoing the same message around the country, as they always do. It won't work...