Rishi’s latest Sunakonomics rescue is a sticking-plaster on a bullethole

A new lifeline

YOU have to admire Rishi Sunak’s ­tenacious commitment to saving jobs. But he is fighting a losing battle against ­economic reality.

His latest targeted bailout replaces the furlough, which has kept vast numbers in work during and since the lockdown.

⚠️ Read our coronavirus live blog for the latest news & updates

It places the financial burden more squarely with employers, even though many are already on the brink of ruin. 

But the furlough could not go on. 

And this does have the merit of ending taxpayer support for jobs that sadly will never be viable again . . . instead focussing on saving those that still are.

If the Chancellor now ramps up training to maximise the chances of all those laid off getting new work, he will at least have done his best by them.

Those are the positives, along with the extension to the self-employment income support scheme and the tweaks to loans and VAT to lighten firms’ load.

But this latest Sunakonomics rescue is a sticking-plaster on a bullethole. And what alarms us is that the public still seems largely unaware it has been shot.

One major poll reveals massive support for almost any anti-Covid restriction, short of shutting schools again, no matter how unimaginably costly. By huge or comfortable margins, the public would impose lockdowns nationally or locally, seal our borders entirely, enforce curfews and close pubs, bars, restaurants, “non-essential” shops and universities.

This mood will, we suspect, change overnight once the inevitable tsunami of unemployment engulfs us. Mr Sunak’s bailouts, though vital, have kept Britain in denial that the worst hardships for ­generations lie immediately ahead of us.

Rising cases, at a new daily record of 6,634 yesterday, spook the nation out of all proportion to the actual danger. Health Secretary Matt Hancock reckons there are in fact 10,000 new infections a day now. But that is a TENTH of what he estimates we had at the pandemic’s height in the spring.

Daily deaths back then hit almost 1,200. Yesterday’s total was 40. Our position is far better than it was, for many reasons. But all the Government’s talk, even in the face of looming economic catastrophe, is of locking down harder.

If it is taking comfort from public support for restrictions, it should wake up.

Its focus, before our ruin is certain, should be not on closing down but on finding ways to open up.

Bogey man

PRINCE Andrew’s toe-curling interview over the Epstein scandal ended his royal career and any sympathy he once enjoyed.

Let us hope, too, it has ended the extraordinary profligacy that saw him splurge £16,000 of taxpayers’ money on a private jet to a golf tournament.

We have to wonder what return the public ever saw from Andy’s years ­collecting air miles at our expense.

And that was before his Epstein antics dragged the family name through the mud.

GOT a story? RING The Sun on 0207 782 4104 or WHATSAPP on 07423720250 or EMAIL exclusive@the-sun.co.uk