Charlie Mullins: Stop moaning about the Autumn Statement

Osborne did a good job, says the Pimlico Plumbers founder

To all those who are bitching and moaning that the chancellor hasn’t delivered today, let me tell you that the evidence suggests the opposite. In one mighty move George Osborne has hastened the demise of youth unemployment and the skills gap that is holding back UK PLC from reaching full economic self-sufficiency. Let me be clear the abolition of National Insurance for under 25s in training is a game changer – another step towards my national apprenticeship scheme, yes, and a giant leap forward for Skills training in the UK.

So this parliament hasn’t seen the complete destruction of the deficit, only a major improvement from what was inherited from a bunch of economic incompetents, who still have no alternative plan to the one that is working. We knew that was going to be the case yesterday, but today was the twin-Eds’ Ya Boo Sucks moment, so I hope they enjoyed it. The rest of us have work to do building a strong economy, and the good news is there’s even more evidence of a sound plan today than there was yesterday.

By cutting the National Insurance paid to your average 21-year-old apprentice by almost 28 quid George Osborn has made a massive investment in the future of this country. This is how we will balance the books on an annual basis, and once we are in the black we will be in a position to pay off the accumulated debt of many years.  This move is something I have been campaigning for almost a decade now, and one I’m extremely happy to see come to pass.

Businesses have been given the green light to take on more apprentices, to create more skilled workers for the future, who will earn more for themselves and the country. This is how we will increase GDP, not by paying out increased amounts of benefits in the forlorn hope that a fairy will cast a magic spell and the nasty deficit and debts will disappear!

There were more forward looking measure in the Autumn statement including the reforming of the stamp duty system, which will help homebuilding, and the £500m guaranteed lending to SMEs (and the additional £400m Extended Venture Capital) are another couple of examples of building a future rather than squandering money we don’t have to make the present look good. 

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