{"id":29497,"date":"2021-07-15T16:20:23","date_gmt":"2021-07-15T15:20:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=29497"},"modified":"2021-07-16T15:37:50","modified_gmt":"2021-07-16T14:37:50","slug":"hollow-levelling-up-promises","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=29497","title":{"rendered":"‘Hollow’ levelling-up promises"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Unite has slammed prime minister Boris Johnson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s speech on Thursday (July 15) in Coventry on \u00e2\u20ac\u0098levelling up the country\u00e2\u20ac\u2122, saying his pledges rang hollow when he has refused to help both struggling families and industries across the country amid the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Johnson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s speech was described by Labour as \u00e2\u20ac\u0098gibberish nonsense\u00e2\u20ac\u2122, with Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner highlighting how the prime minister \u00e2\u20ac\u015bdoes not do detail; he does soundbites\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It is all jam tomorrow and a load of baloney. What he pretends and what he says he is going to do, is not what happens in reality,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his speech, Johnson said “levelling up is not a jam-spreading operation. It’s not robbing Peter to pay Paul. It’s not zero-sum. It’s win-win”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added that so-called \u00e2\u20ac\u0098levelling up\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 in certain regions would not come at the expense of making already wealthy regions poorer, noting, “We don’t want to decapitate the tall poppies.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The speech touched on a wide range of issues including tackling crime, building more football pitches and building more railway lines, but no one issue was supported with explicit policies. Johnson also pledged to expand devolution and suggested that county leaders may get more powers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Johnson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0098levelling up\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 agenda was included in the 2019 Tory manifesto and has become an-oft repeated mantra throughout his tenure as prime minister. This agenda is understood to include more investment in infrastructure and businesses in more deprived regions in the UK. The government has said it will outline specific details for its \u00e2\u20ac\u0098levelling up\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 plans in September.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When asked after his speech if he had any strategy for the agenda, Johnson responded,  “I am respectfully going to urge you to just go back over some of what I said because I do think that in all fairness there was at least the skeleton of what to do.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unite assistant general secretary Steve Turner slammed the prime minister for yet again making vague promises to bring prosperity to regions suffering from systemic inequalities when the government has to date done the exact opposite.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We won’t be taking sermons on the mysteries of inequalities from a prime minister that has sanctioned the snatch back of \u00c2\u014120 per week from millions of the lowest paid workers, who are on Universal Credit because work doesn’t pay in this country, and is poised to deny two million poor pensioners the income they need to get by,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Turner said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“This government’s levelling up promises ring hollow too when it refuses to play an active role in saving and creating decent work in this country,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he added. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bOver 500 jobs at GKN, for example, hang by a thread because the Johnson government refuses to be positive partner in the economy.\u00c2\u00a0 Sitting on the sidelines while our competitors get on with investment in green manufacturing means the UK is missing out on the chance to bring stable, good work back to our heartlands.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Hajera Blagg<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Unite has slammed prime minister Boris Johnson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s speech on Thursday (July 15) in Coventry on \u00e2\u20ac\u0098levelling up the country\u00e2\u20ac\u2122, saying his pledges rang hollow when he has refused to help both struggling families and industries across the country amid the pandemic. Johnson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s speech was described by Labour as \u00e2\u20ac\u0098gibberish nonsense\u00e2\u20ac\u2122, with Labour deputy leader Angela […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19654,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[624,1691,1692,462],"wps_subtitle":"Unite slams prime minister Boris Johnson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s latest speech on \u00e2\u20ac\u0098levelling up\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 the country","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29497"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29497"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29497\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29518,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29497\/revisions\/29518"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}