Mobile jobcentres won't stop rising unemployment

Just when you thought we'd had enough stupidity from the government to last a lifetime comes another harebrained idea.

- JAMES MOORE

Last year, health secretary Wes Streeting was widely derided for suggesting the long-term unemployed could be given weight-loss jabs to help them back into work. So a new drumroll ... for the mobile jobcentre.

Live in an area of high unemployment? You'll soon be seeing walk-in vans parked up on a street near you, full of work coaches who can offer expert support with job searches, CV rewriting and training courses. Stopping-off points will include shopping centres, mosques and (here's where the stupid really comes in) football matches. No, really. Football matches.

Given the price of a ticket these days, I question whether you'll find many, or even any, people in the stands who survive on benefits, even in those restricted-view seats in which half the goal is obscured.

But let's say, for argument's sake, that you're a jobseeker and your mates have stood you the price of a ticket. Do ministers really imagine that a jobcentre van parked outside the stadium is a place you'd be looking to visit before kick-off?