Tories - party of the self-employed ?

 George Osborne's details of his new job with asset management firm Blac – in addition to his parliamentary salary – will be £650,000 a year for one day’s work a week. That, for the record, is an hourly rate of more than £1,600, or about 200 times the sum proclaimed by Osborne during his chancellorship as a “living wage”, at least for ordinary mortals.

Royal Bank of Scotland announced that after a year of distinctly mediocre ­performance, including a loss of £7 billion, they are giving their senior executives an annual bonus package worth £16 million at current share values.

 15 per cent of Britain’s workforce is now self-employed. Half of them earn less than £13,200 a year; and they experience levels of absolute job insecurity and income variability, without sick pay, parental leave, or unemployment benefit during lean times.

Chancellor Phillip Hammond will increase from nine per cent to ten per cent in April 2018, and to 11 per cent in April 2019 for self-employed people earning more than £16,250 a year – a hike of two per cent over the next two years.