With enough vision, the furlough scheme could have become a lifeboat for industry

All signs are that the chancellor will end his wage support initiative next month. If he does, it will be a chance missed

It seems inevitable that the Treasury will turn down requests from trade unions to maintain the furlough scheme as a permanent safety net beyond autumn.

The TUC said it would be a step forward for the UK to have the kind of underpinning to incomes that German workers and many others across the world's richest nations enjoy. The Kurzarbeit income protection scheme that Berlin has maintained through thick and thin since 1924 always comes to prominence in a major crisis, but it is in place to cope with a mini-crisis as much as a major one.

An increase in universal credit is due to be cut back by Sunak in September. This tells everyone a permanent replacement for furlough is unlikely