Unions support joint industrial action over cuts

[Barman]

Union delegates have backed joint industrial action if "attacks" on jobs, pensions and public services go ahead.

The TUC's annual gathering backed a motion which included calls to build "a broad solidarity alliance of unions and communities under threat".

TUC chief Brendan Barber warned that big cuts would make Britain a "dark, brutish and more frightening place".

Source

Much as I loathe the unions I can't help but feel a little sympathy with them on this matter... 

We all know how bloated the public services are and I've no doubt that you really could cut 25% off the entire budget without the average man in the street ever knowing that they'd gone...

BUT I strongly suspect that it won't be £90K per year Diversity Officers, Five-a-Day Coordinators, Hospital Managers, Smoking Snoopers and Bin Checkers that get the chop. The axe is more likely to fall on those that DO actually provide front line services...

The unions would have much greater public support if they acknowledged that fact instead of pledging to fight every single job cut...

[Nick]

http://www.spectator.co.uk/alexmassie/6269360/will-the-tuc-condemn-castro.thtml 

[Barman]

http://www.spectator.co.uk/alexmassie/6269360/will-the-tuc-condemn-castro.thtml 

Most excellent! 

[Snoopy]

I see the Police Force Service are now wading in to protect themselves with scare stories about how they will be needed to control the unrest that the cutbacks are "bound" to create. Talk about self serving arguments ~ have they forgotten we have a perfectly good army, only a quarter of which is in Afghanistan at any one time? There are some 22,000 troops serving in Germany alone we can call in if needed and they have far greater fire-power than the police 

[Nick]

http://www.oldholborn.net/2010/09/welcome-to-priory-rehab-centre.html
 

[Snoopy]

OH's problem is that he shouts a lot but never supplies any answers. It is easy to say "You are wrong" but when you say it you need to have something to put in its place.

[Barman]

http://www.oldholborn.net/2010/09/welcome-to-priory-rehab-centre.html
 

Excellent!

Dianne Abbott takes the freaking biscuit doesn't she? The biggest bastard racist of them all! 

[Barman]

OH's problem is that he shouts a lot but never supplies any answers. It is easy to say "You are wrong" but when you say it you need to have something to put in its place.

Put in place of what? All the useless jobsworths that our taxes pay for?

[Miss Demeanour]

And the last time you paid UK taxes was when BM 

I am one of those jobsworths to which you are referring 

[Barman]

And the last time you paid UK taxes was when BM 

I am one of those jobsworths to which you are referring 

 

I obviously don't pay taxes any more! 

But when I ran my business there the VAT, NI and CT payments for a company with 45 employees were eye watering... where has it all gone eh, EH?

And in all seriousness it appears from what you have posted that your role in the council is quite worthwhile... Hopefully it will be five-a-day diversity coordinators and tobacco ban enforcement officers (that serve no useful purpose whatsoever) that they get rid of...

[Miss Demeanour]

Serious hat on ...we are currently looking at proposals for 25 and 40 % cuts across the board ( starting the redundancy process all over agian from Jan 11)

If any service has a chance of survival it will either have to prove that it has to be statutarily provided ( and no one else can provide this) or will have to show it can generate income.

Time to start the bun fight 

[Grumpmeister]

I see the Police Force Service are now wading in to protect themselves with scare stories about how they will be needed to control the unrest that the cutbacks are "bound" to create. Talk about self serving arguments ~ have they forgotten we have a perfectly good army, only a quarter of which is in Afghanistan at any one time? There are some 22,000 troops serving in Germany alone we can call in if needed and they have far greater fire-power than the police 

I'd also trust them more with firearms than the doughnut munching cretins.

[Barman]

Serious hat on ...we are currently looking at proposals for 25 and 40 % cuts across the board ( starting the redundancy process all over agian from Jan 11)

If any service has a chance of survival it will either have to prove that it has to be statutarily provided ( and no one else can provide this) or will have to show it can generate income.

Time to start the bun fight 

And I suppose smoking cessation officers are a statuary requirement?

[Grumpmeister]

I'm going for an interview/competency test for a civil service post in a couple of days but looking at the propective cutbacks across the board I have to wonder if I'm just wasting my time. 

[Snoopy]

OH's problem is that he shouts a lot but never supplies any answers. It is easy to say "You are wrong" but when you say it you need to have something to put in its place.

Put in place of what? All the useless jobsworths that our taxes pay for?

Exactly ....... My point is that there is no point in shouting Brown OUT! unless you have someone better to put in his place...... The Millipedes? Balls? Abbott? and some other bugger that nobody has ever heard of are the current choices. I don't see that they are any better than Brown or Blair.
Taxes are unavoidable and we all know why. A fair distribution of the cash raised is what we want to see. Diversity is fine ~ very commendable in fact ~ IF WE CAN AFFORD IT but we can't so such people have to go.