Emma and government

A small piece in today's Mail headed Back-to-work tsar to reveal campaign plan tells us that A4e's Emma Harrison is to "meet Department of Education officials this week to finalise details of her campaign to get 100,000 unemployed families working over the next five years." With some rather strange figures, she tells us how the government can save money and people can have better lives. Finally we learn that "Later this week Harrison will speak to nine foreign leaders at David Cameron's Nordic Summit in London to tell them how her campaign could work elsewhere."

What is most concerning about this is that, with the Work Programme contracts not yet out and nobody examining A4e's record, this woman has put herself forward as the national expert, and the government is conniving at that; she is being allowed to tout A4e's services to foreign leaders under Cameron's auspices, and the right wing press is helping her.

The dire Working Families Everywhere website tells us (with A4e's usual blithe disregard for correct English) that, "On 18th January, Emma will be meeting The Department for Education, shortly after with Local Authorities who have pledged their interest to be involved. During this meeting we will finalise the first stages of the Working Families Everywhere Campaign, led by Emma Harrison." It will be interesting to see which local authorities have fallen for this.