Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Employment – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 25 October 1988.
My hon. Friend is right. If one looks at the attitude of that authority, one sees an attitude to the training of the long-term unemployed that is thoroughly reprehensible. I dare say that my hon. Friend has it in mind that when the Leader of the Opposition belatedly came out in favour of employment training, he was joined by the hon. Member for Oldham, West (Mr. Meacher), who was quoted the next day as saying that if, in fact, the TUC came out against employment training it would send the wrong message to the unemployed—indeed, it did. The message that it sent them was a slap in the face.