Well, 2009 has arrived – accompanied by forecasts of doom and gloom in retail and most other areas of employment.

A year’s break for the raising of the national minimum wage is proposed by some, and immediately opposed by the unions.

Pundits say that the freeze for a year would keep people in jobs, as small businesses cannot survive if they have to raise wages again.

Surely the unions would prefer to keep their members, who they represent and whose interests should be paramount, in a job rather than see them made redundant because a company fails?

In recent years, companies have recorded mega profits and expanded.

Am I being particularly naïve in thinking that now these companies should aim at just surviving the downturn for a year or so?

Forget the mega-profits and payouts to the fat cats at the top.

Without the thousands of loyal employees, they would not have made their money, so it’s time to repay them.

They should concentrate on keeping their branches open.

As long as there is money to pay staff, pay the rent, buy new stock and, of course, pay taxes, then surely that is a better alternative than throwing in the towel and going into administration at the first sign of problems.

The banks also have a responsibility. They have received a bail-out from the tax payer. Therefore, I think we would agree to them dropping their loan rates to commercial borrowers, if it meant saving jobs.

I know our Government doesn’t set us a very good example, but let’s all try to pull together for once.

Perhaps that way we can make things better for everybody CHRIS PAYNE Victoria Court Bicester