Bloated prophets

The fat cats' uncanny powers of prediction have an impressive pedigree.

Similar fears for the "prosperity" of the country were raised when Parliament considered abolishing slavery, limiting the working week and putting an end to the practice of sending small children up chimneys.

Unfortunately for the Mystic Megs of the ruling classes, there was only one consistent aspect to their prophecies of doom - they were nonsense.

After the government announced on Wednesday that the minimum wage will increase by 21p an hour to £5.73 from October, Low Pay Commission chairman Paul Myners himself revealed that, "despite many predictions to the contrary, job numbers in the industries most affected by the minimum wage have grown, and grown significantly, over the same period."

And yet the wailing and gnashing of teeth from Britain's bosses shows no sign of coming to an end.

On Wednesday, British Retail Consortium director-general Stephen Robertson moaned that the latest minimum wage increase had not been capped at a level below the rate of inflation.

"There should also be no repeats of the previous inflation-busting increases, as businesses are still coming to terms with the cumulative effects of these," he pleaded.

Presumably, the most poorly paid in our society should be grateful that they have not been subjected to the same penny-pinching that their fellow workers in the public sector have had to endure, with Prime Minister Gordon Brown determined to force an effective pay cut on millions of people who are already struggling to make ends meet.

But it is the muted reaction of the Labour-affiliated trade unions that has really been instructive when it comes to assessing the real worth of Wednesday's announcement.

Britain's workers are faced with an ever-growing gap between rich and poor, soaring energy bills, transport costs and sky-high rents.

And, as GMB general secretary Paul Kenny pointed out, Mr Brown's Robin-Hood-in-reverse move to abolish the 10 per cent lower income tax rate for the lowest paid will all but wipe out the measly minimum wage increase.

Unite joint leader Tony Woodley has made the observation that the 3.6 per cent increase "is well below current RPI inflation and projected pay increases, which both stand at 4.1 per cent.

"At a time when inequality is rising up the political agenda and business leaders are awarding themselves record pay rises, the lowest-paid workers continue to slip back," he noted.

"This cannot continue," Mr Woodley told the government. And indeed it must not.

If this government has any remaining vestiges of socialism within its soul, it must listen to union leaders' calls for a "living" minimum wage pegged to RPI and beginning at around £7 an hour - and avoid the overpaid doom-mongers and their dodgy prophecies.