The Conservatives were at the center of another embarrassing U-turn last night as the Work and Pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith suggested that new jobs could be created in the public sector if people were willing to pay a higher price for them.
On the same day that the Prime Minister denied additional university places would be created for candidates who were willing to pay higher fees, Mr. Duncan Smith claimed that people could obtain positions if they were willing to pay for them. “It’s very simple really. If you would like to work in the public sector you can give us, oh, I don’t know, £10,000. Then you can work that newly created position for as long as you want. If you pay us £30000 we’ll make you head of something new, like sheep herding in Derbyshire or something.”
Mr. Duncan Smith faced heated questions in the commons, with MP for Hackney Diane Abbot asking, “Surely this will turn the world of work into an elitist hierarchy?” To which the secretary replied, “There will still be jobs for people who can’t afford to pay for them, just much less than there is now. It may be true that this will mean the best workers never get to progress to anywhere near their full potential, but this is a price we must pay with the economy how it is.”
David Cameron was unavailable to confirm or deny the reports, although an aid close to the PM suggested he would poor water on the bill. “We can see by the way that David has gone about defusing the situation with the University fees that he needs to be much more careful about who he tells these plans to. Therefore I’m fairly sure he will steamroller this proposal as well to try and save face.
John Prescott was really not happy about the story.
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