CITY AND SUBURBAN
Bang, bang, you're off the dole in Detroit it's the unemployment summit
CHRISTOPHER FILDES
Detroit has evolved its own way to deal with unemployment. It's murder. There is a lot of it about, but mostly among the underclass, and it does save on benefits and keep the numbers down. Now David Hunt, the Employment Minister, is going there with Kenneth Clarke to see for himself. I do hope they get back all right. Some humorist has chosen Detroit for the world summit meeting on jobs — President Clin- ton's big idea. Having won the election on his slogan 'The economy, stupid', he was slow to believe that it was not so stupid as all that, or capable of creating jobs. Now it is looking as bright as a button, but the summit must go on, as summits do. In their way, they create employment. The July summit — in Naples, of all places — will find work reviewing this one. The British ministers have put out a pamphlet called `Competitiveness and employment', which at least suggests that the two might go together. This has not until now been the Euro-idea. European policy has been based on protecting those already in work, with shorter hours, guaranteed benefits, mini- mum wages, fireproof employment, and equal rights for women, except where they want something better. Our courts have now joined in, importing Euro-protection for part-timers into English law, and pro- moting employees to first place among a company's creditors. If its receiver or administrator tries to keep it going, he may now be liable for its contracts of employ- ment. He will therefore sack everyone, re- employing those he wants, on terms of his own choosing. When it comes to protecting employment, good intentions are not enough. As with housing, the laws and rules protecting those who are inside makes it harder for those who are outside to get in. Here and there in Europe, the Detroit solution seems to be taking hold.
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