November 12, 2008
Could it be that leading politicians really are taking their cues from Guru's favourite HR pundit John Philpott?
After the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development's chief economist called for the US Senate to pass President Bush's $700bn bailout package, and for the Bank of England to slash interest rates, he most recently moved on to demand employer national insurance holidays to help tackle unemployment.
Philpott told Personnel Today earlier this month that there should be "a time-limited cut in employer National Insurance contributions, targeted at employers in the private or voluntary sectors to enable them to retain, and to provide training for, any member of staff who would otherwise be made redundant because of short-term trading difficulties."
Now Guru has been fairly mocking of Philpott's demands up to this point, so imagine Guru's open-mouthed, cornflake-spitting surprise this morning when he saw none other than Tory leader David Cameron outlining almost exactly the same plan.
Cameron said that the Tories would slash firms' National Insurance bills if they took on staff who had been jobless for three months.
Unbelievable. Guru is off to phone Philpott and ask him who he reckons should win next year's Grand National.
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