The latest unemployment figures make worrying reading for Wales.
Over the last three months Wales has seen the largest rise in unemployment of any part of the UK. And by Christmas 100,000 people could find themselves out of work.
They represent families across Wales struggling to make ends meet and highlight an economy already stretched to breaking point.
The hardest hit constituencies include Cynon Valley, Rhondda, Cardiff South and Penarth, and Blaenau Gwent, sadly no strangers to unemployment.
Labour and Plaid Cymru ministers in Cardiff and London have no idea how to deal with rising joblessness and its corrosive effects on the economy. Their economic summits have failed to inspire or produce lasting solutions to current economic problems. In the meantime, jobs are disappearing at an alarming rate, particularly in the construction and manufacturing industries which has seen the loss of 13,000 in the last year alone.
Jobs are being lost because businesses are struggling, having been placed under undue pressure by the Labour administrations at either end of the M4 for the last decade. In 1997 the UK had the lowest corporate tax rate in the EU. Since then it has risen 19 places in this table. The CBI estimated that since 1997 more than 34,500 regulations have been introduced – more than 14 new regulations for every working day and at a cost to business of over £65 billion since 1998.
What Wales desperately needs now is a new approach. A new approach which gets people back into work but also supports businesses and ensures newly created jobs, as well as those of their existing workforce, are secured in the long term.
On Tuesday, David Cameron announced a proposal which would provide tax cuts for businesses that help tackle unemployment. Under this initiative, for each person employed who had been out of work for three months or longer, businesses would see their tax bill fall by up to £2,500. This would create an estimated 350,000 jobs across the UK whilst saving businesses around £2.6 billion.
The beauty of this idea is that it stems from a very simple, common sense idea. If businesses employ an individual who has been unemployed for three months, this saves the tax payer money. In difficult economic times, where we need to stimulate business and reverse a trend of growing unemployment, it is sensible to pass this saving on to the business.
The scheme is cost-neutral and benefits both families and businesses. It also alleviates the high social costs associated with long term unemployment.
It forms part of a whole package of measures suggested by Conservatives to support businesses and keep Britain working including a new Business Mentors service, insolvency reform, deferring VAT bills for SMEs, an NI holiday for employers, a simpler business tax system, expansion of training, business deregulation, better use of Government procurement, community learning and rapid retraining for the unemployed.
It is this kind of new thinking that we need in Wales and across the UK. Gordon Brown likes to paint himself as the saviour of the UK economy: the mastermind behind solving the banking crisis, just the kind of steady hand we need to guide us through the choppy waters of the recession.
But we must not forget that it has been his hand on the tiller for the last 11 years. It is Gordon Brown who steered us into this economic storm. The responsible thing for Government to do during periods of sustained economic growth is to set aside money for the prospect of more difficult economic conditions ahead. That is what other Governments elsewhere have done such as Australia and Sweden. In the UK Gordon Brown did the opposite, basing his entire economic policy on the delusional belief that boom and bust had been abolished. Now we find ourselves with the biggest budget deficit in the developed world, leaving us uniquely exposed to recession.
It is no longer acceptable for us to continue along this route. More of the same means more borrowing, more debt and more government intervention. This has not and will not work. If we don’t take on board new ideas and move in a new direction the recession may be even deeper than feared and it will be a long time before we emerge.
There are reasons for optimism, though. The Welsh workforce has shown itself to be particularly adaptable. More women are entering the workforce and more people are taking on second jobs. There is also a great entrepreneurial spirit in Wales, as well as a large number of world class, well established industries.
We need fresh thinking and a change of approach. It will get us through these tough times and leave us stronger and more resilient, ensuring a prosperous and more successful Wales.