Thursday, February 18, 2010

Yvette Cooper "Admits" Jobless Failure

Today's Metro newspaper writes up the latest unemployment figs under the headline: “Dole claims hit highest level since Labour came to power”

In the copy the quote attributed to Yvette Cooper says:

"The continued growth in the number of long term unemployed shows that Labour is failing to support the people who need their help the most. Unless ministers wake up and stop treating these people like a statistic we risk losing a generation to a culture of worklessness."

Unsurprisingly it's been taken off line!

I asked the Tories for a response. I imagine the spokesman had his tongue firmly in his cheek...

"We welcome Yvette’s u-turn and applaud her honesty. We hope the Prime Minister will follow her lead and admit the government has let down thousands of unemployed people."



UPDATE: Marie Claire are still reporting Yvette Cooper's comments...

9 comments:

Pickled said...

The quote survives in the campaigning journal that is Marie Clare...

http://www.marieclaire.co.uk/news/443283/jobless-people-claiming-benefits-rises-to-1-64m.html

Anonymous said...

Let's hope that Ms Cooper enjoys a bit of flagellation, even though Gordon only seems to indulge in the verbal variety.

I wonder what happened? Did she lose her script and just have to "wing it"? Or is she torpedoing Gordon to help her hubby?

Owen Meredith said...

Still online: http://e-edition.metro.co.uk/2010/02/18/

Anonymous said...

But....but....I thought unemployment had fallen by 3,000.

TheBoilingFrog said...

I don't wish to sound harsh - I've been the victim of redundancy and joblessness in the past and it's utter crap - but I'm glad that some members of the Labour party are starting to realise how difficult it is to do anything about it when the economy takes a down turn.

Perhaps they should have thought of that when they had previously continued to score 'cheap' points at the Major government for the unemployment problems in the early '90s.

Jimmy said...

Oddly enough the Daily Hitler attributes the identical quote to Theresa May.

What did Belloc say about British journalists again?

Matelot said...

Remind me - which party is in opposition? Yvette Cooper and Hillary Benn certainly don't know!

Brian said...

Very proactive of Yvette to practice being in opposition.

Anonymous said...

"Jimmy said...
Oddly enough the Daily Hitler attributes the identical quote to Theresa May."

Wouldn't know, I don't read the Grauniad.