27 APRIL 1985, Page 5

A different league

E FOUNDERS of the Employment rastitute and its 'Charter for Jobs' compare themselves with the Anti-Corn Law vague, which took seven years to achieve 1..'S objective, in 1846. Even the Guardian has noticed a difference between the two movements, though it expresses it in a Parenthesis — the Employment Institute amts to work '(. .through government

There rather than laissez faire)'.

ere is an equally important contrast. The Anti-Corn Law League was campaign- ing for an absolutely specific object — the tePeal of the corn laws; the Institute is h!IIPaigning for all sorts of different lugs. This means that it can never be -i'ear, as it was with the League, when the institute has achieved its objectives, and it also means that the Institute will be embroiled in so many interlocking political arguments that it will become confused in the public and its own mind. The compari- son with the Anti-Corn Law League sug- rrists a much better idea. Why not an ,,s.tirure whose sole purpose was to cam- paign for the repeal of all laws and regula-

tions which restrict employment? Britain is full of such laws and an independent body is needed to attack them. We need an Anti-Anti-Job Law League.