The pedant in me was provoked when a report arrived the other day from the Left-wing Resolution Foundation 'authored by' its interim chief executive Mike Brewer. Quite how 'authoring' a report differs from 'writing' one remains a mystery. Language evolves, and at times it does so in ways some of us find irritating. The important thing is that Mr Brewer had interesting points to make.
He drew attention to the 'big pivot' which will be executed in 2025 by Chancellor Rachel Reeves towards the public sector, making it a priority above the private, wealth-creating part of the economy that pays for it all. This, as the Resolution Foundation notes, is a striking change in direction, of a kind not seen in a generation outside of the financial crisis and the pandemic.
Anyone listening to Reeves and her boss Sir Keir Starmer might imagine public sector employees to be morally superior and lowly paid. It's true many people working in the NHS, the Armed Forces or teaching, members of my own family included, are driven by a sense of vocation. But the assumption public sector workers are downtrodden compared with the private sector is not always correct.
Two of a kind: Chancellor Rachel Reeves with her boss Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer. Average public sector pay was 6 per cent higher than the private sector in the three months to November, according to the Foundation. In fairness, that is only one period and there have been times when the public sector has lagged.
