IT’S that time of year when we roll up our sleeves and get back to it.
But with endless train strikes, a “twindemic” of flu and Covid and a general post-Christmas malaise gripping the country, our workforce is at a standstill.
The only place where you’re likely to see a professional wearing a tie is on the latest series of my TV show, The Apprentice.
It seems our collective get-up-and-go has got up and left.
This week we found out the TWAT generation are choosing to work three days a week in the office (Tuesday, Wednesday And Thursday, geddit?).
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Commuters are dodging city centres on Mondays and Fridays in a fresh blow to our flagging hospitality industry.
Extending those winter weekends might seem a nice way to ease back to work but there are stark long-term implications.
Our shops, pubs and restaurants across Britain have been hammered.
During the festive trading period, average footfall on high streets was down a third from 2019.
Businesses will close, with jobs lost.
It is all exacerbated by rail strikes — which cost the UK hospitality sector £1.5billion in December.
'MOANING MASSES'
Any sympathy I felt for the rail unions’ industrial action is going.
It’s impossible to support striking drivers when they’ve had pay rises of up to 62 per cent in recent years, more than double inflation in the same period.
The average driver’s salary has risen by over a third since 2012.
They were also offered an eight-per-cent pay rise this week to break the deadlock, as more than 20,000 rail workers chose to strike.
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If train workers don’t like the job and don’t think it pays enough, then perhaps they should simply quit and find a job they do enjoy.
I’m sure there would be plenty of other people willing to take up all those roles, with generous perks and pensions.
But depressingly, many on social media seemed delighted by the latest disruptive action.
One boasted of a “relaxed” first week back to work, while another Twitter user wrote: “I love train strikes . . . I’ve been WFH all week!”
We live in an era of entitlement where the moaning masses want the Government to solve their problems — but heaven forbid if they have to pay.
So it was all very well for Rishi Sunak to set out his “people’s priorities” in his New Year speech.
But how does the Prime Minister expect to get anything done when stations are shut, city centres are empty and a lackadaisical work- force logs on at home while munching leftover Christmas chocolates?
Many problems British businesses are facing go deeper than January lethargy.
The huge cost of Covid and impact of the war in Ukraine has resulted in rampant inflation and increased energy prices.
Brexit and the resulting staff shortages have left the hospitality industry, and care homes, desperate for new recruits.
With around 1.3million job vacancies, people can command more money to do the work.
But with a lack of customers, business owners can’t afford to pay them.
I have huge sympathy for striking nurses, who perform the toughest of jobs in the hardest of conditions.
But they are far from alone.
University staff, roadworkers and Royal Mail employees have all been on picket lines in recent weeks.
At this point you’re more likely to catch a sighting of RMT leader Mick Lynch at the local Tory club than a train driver on the job.
I can’t help but feel a lot of these strikes are politically motivated by unions which support — and fund — Labour.
If the polls are to be believed and Sir Keir Starmer wins power next year, I fear we could find ourselves with a puppet PM — and his union masters pulling the strings.
After a dire start to 2023, let’s hope we turn things around.
We are never going to get BoJo back — but we need our mojo back.
BRIT’S DUE A BREAK
WHENEVER I see Britney Spears has posted a social media update, I get a gnawing feeling in my stomach.
Just weeks after sharing a video of herself writhing in the shower, the singer sparked more concern after holding a lighter just inches from her tongue in her latest erratic Instagram post.
She set the peculiar dance montage to the tune of Jennifer Lopez’s song Booty, while revealing she “meditated” to Shakira’s 2005 hit Hips Don’t Lie.
Of all the people who deserve a happy and, most importantly, healthy New Year, I’d say that it’s Britney.
And I feel it would be advisable for her to take a break from social media.
CREDIT TO THE POLICE
NO parent wants to issue their teenagers with yet another warning as they leave the house.
But sadly it has become the norm for mums and dads to plead with their kids not to use their mobiles on the streets.
That’s because more than 183 smartphones are stolen every day – some in very scary and brazen attacks.
I’ve seen this happen twice on the streets in London and it’s really devastating – not to mention dangerous – for the victims.
So it’s satisfying to hear that two mobile- phone robbers – who stole 72 handsets in London in just six weeks using a moped – have been jailed for four and a half years each.
Randy Kavungu, 21, and Darius James, 22, waged a campaign of violent theft, biking up to people at speed then snatching their phones.
They struck during rush hour, targeting lone morning commuters using their phones on the way to work.
One victim had a coffee thrown in their face, while another had their finger broken.
The thieves covered their numberplates so there was no simple way to link the bikes to the suspects.
But with great determination, police used CCTV, witness testimonies and other data to build profiles of the two offenders.
It’s particularly cheering because a lot of us had given up on the idea the police might try to solve what is, on the surface, a relatively petty crime.
This is good policing in action.
DAVINA’S A MASKED ZINGER IN MINISKIRT
GOOD on Davina McCall for insisting she will not stop wearing minidresses at 55.
She joked that her liking for short hemlines could risk ruining her career.
I sincerely doubt it – she looks utterly fabulous.
But let’s be real – it’s not easy to pull off daring fashion in your fifties.
Luckily, Davina is sleek, streamlined and fit – for any age.
Davina – who teamed an orange minidress with a striking wig on The Masked Singer – is committed to staying in shape and has a stack of excellent workout DVDs to prove it.
That takes serious discipline, the kind of which escapes most of us.
Would I be rocking a miniskirt if I had her body?
No doubt about it.
CHORE BLIMEY
I WISH I could say I’m surprised by the “revelation” that women are still doing 70 minutes more household chores a day than men.
According to a new study, they spend an average of two hours and 49 minutes cooking, cleaning, and doing the dishes and laundry.
Men spend just an hour and 39 minutes on similar jobs.
Is anyone shocked that men are failing to pull their weight at home? It’s a tale as old as time.
But what did surprise me was that women still do an average of close to three hours of cleaning EVERY DAY.
You cannot change other people’s actions but you can always change your own.
My theory on housework is that if the item doesn’t multiply, smell, catch fire or block the fridge door, let it be. No one cares.
If they do, then they can deal with it.
