This is a good piece by @jessicaelgot on how Covid ripped through Whitehall. But the quote at the end from @JonAshworth has induced a minor paroxysm of nerd-rage. Brief thread follows theguardian.com/politics/2021/… 
Whether or not you think sick pay rules affected the spread of Covid, the claim at the end that we've 'built an economy characterised by zero hours contracts, temporary work' is just not true. In fact, it's complete and utter bollocks, no matter how many times Labour say it.
Here are the @ONS figures for employment growth over the last five years. Until Covid hits, most jobs created are very clearly full time rather than part time.
In fact, if you're enough of a nerd - and I am - you can download the relevant ONS dataset. Let's look at that decade Ashworth mentions ons.gov.uk/employmentandl…
2010: one part-time worker for every 2.7 full-time workers
2020: one for every 3.1
2010: 34.4% of workers are temporary
2020: 28.9% of workers are temporary
(As recently as Q3 2019 that figure is 24.0% - the second lowest in the entire time series)
2020: one for every 3.1
2010: 34.4% of workers are temporary
2020: 28.9% of workers are temporary
(As recently as Q3 2019 that figure is 24.0% - the second lowest in the entire time series)
During that period, the ratio of those in temporary work who are actually looking for extra hours goes from 34% to 29%.
On zero hours contracts, Ashworth has a fragment of a point. They have gone from covering 0.6% to 3% of the workforce over that period. But...
Before the pandemic hit, only 16.7% of those on ZHCs wanted extra hours in their current job. Only 6.8% wanted a different job with longer hours. Only 2.7% wanted to take on another job. (All data here ons.gov.uk/employmentandl…)
In short, most of the jobs created in the last decade have been full-time jobs. The rise in self-employment has been driven primarily by individual choice, particularly among the highly educated (see this piece of mine for the Times). thetimes.co.uk/article/labour…
Most people on temporary/part-time/ZH contracts appear to be there by choice. And while there may be some issues with ZHCs in particular, the constant repeated whine that the Tories have built the economy on unstable, exploitative, short-term, part-time work is Simply Not True.
(Here's a screengrab from that Times piece - BEIS and ONS both have the data.)
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