But the chancellor’s determination to shut down the scheme at the end of October is likely to trigger a huge rise in unemployment. Around one in eight employees are still furloughed and Mr Sunak’s cut-off point is looking brutally premature. The hostile response from Tory MPs to reports of possible tax rises is an early shot across Mr Sunak’s bows on that front. There are not, then, many reasons to be cheerful, as this blundering government takes the country into autumn and winter. In the best of times, Mr Johnson’s essential unseriousness would have exposed the country to unforced errors and strategic recklessness.

Source: The Guardian August 31, 2020 17:26 UTC