Happy Public Sector Strike Day folks!
I think the above picture sums up the state of the country, and its educashun system, very well!
DAMP SQUIB UPDATE
BBC: "Early indications" show significantly less than a third of civil servants are taking strike action today
Visit The Orifice of Government Commerce and buy a collector's item.
Visit The Joy of Lard and indulge your lard fantasies.
Show your contempt for Nanny by buying a T shirt or thong from Nanny's Store.
www.nannyknowsbest.com is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"
Celebrate the joy of living with booze. Click and drink!
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Why not really indulge yourself, by doing all the things that Nanny really hates? Click on the relevant link to indulge yourselves; Food, Bonking, Gifts and Flowers, Groceries
What I wanna know is... why the hells in the name of sanity didn't we do this when Prudence Brown started robbing our pensions?!
ReplyDeleteGood to see sensible, well argued comments on here.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I have sympathy for the strikers; if you play by the rules and you negotiate, but one side doesn't want to negotiate, then ordinary people have no real choice but to take action.
Just because those in the private sector have had their pensions destroyed by Brown et al, it doesn't mean the public sector should have their pensions destroyed in the name of fairness.
If a private business decided unilaterally to change the terms of a contract, you could take legal action but, if the state does it, you can do nothing about it and that stinks.
People will be working longer, paying more and getting less and this affects those further down the socio-economic ladder the most, in terms of percentage of their incomes.
We should celebrate everyone (at the moment) living longer lives but, are these gains in longevity only there to have us all work longer and longer? I hope not.
I suppose many people in nice, interesting jobs would relish the chance to work longer but, for many people in ordinary unskilled jobs, by the age of sixty, they have had more than enough of the "world of work."
BTW; I am a life long Conservative supporter but, I am unable to support Mr Cameron and his rag, tag and bobtail government. He is NOT a Conservative he is a progressive Marxist, just like most of our current crop of politicians.
Thanks Tonk, agreed for the most part. I make no comment or opinion about the strikers or their grievances, it was merely an observation along the lines of "why didn't we think of that when the opportunity was there!?"
ReplyDeleteI quite agree with you, Tonk! I would also wager that the squeeze on the public sector will not apply to government ministers and M.Ps pensions, which I understand are inflation-proofed.
ReplyDeleteStaff of the Bank of England are not on strike, because their pensions are on special terms.
ReplyDeleteRead an interesting piece this morning; the NHS pension made a huge surplus last financial year, this money was not left in the fund to help keep the scheme on a sustainable footing but went into the treasury's coffers.
ReplyDeleteAnon @ 11-38......I started to post my comment at 11-28 before your post of 11-17 was on view. Although I agree with your post of 11-17, the opening line in my post was a bit of sarcasm aimed at Brian's post......It does appear that Nanny has done a wonderful job of dividing society....Rich against poor, public sector against the private sector, the able against the disabled etc etc. A divided nation is easier to control because no one will back anyone else and thus, Nanny can pick off one group and then another until she's stuffed everyone.
I'm 24, 25 in January. I get worried about what I'll have left to live on in 40 years' time. I'm estimating a tenner a week.
ReplyDeleteDidn't know there were any greengrocer's in the public s'ector.
ReplyDeleteMaybe the strikers do have a point about their pensions, but they would appear to be about 13 years late in making it.
ReplyDeleteTheir attack on the current government should have been directed towards Gordon Brown who, in 1998, changed the tax system relating to pensions and paved the way for a three year decline in the UK stock market (2001, 2002, & 2003).
His actions made sure that everyone’s pension was reduced, not just the public sector workers.
He then used this plundered money to manipulate unemployment figures by creating thousands of useless public sector jobs, all of whom were on strike today and many of whom have been criticised and ridiculed on this site.
Many of we Public Servants were in work today, our salary is paid by funds taken under threat (that is what Tax is after all, demanding money with menaces). The Pension system needs reform and there are a number of options that would benefit the private sector too. (I have worked in both, joining the Public Sector AFTER Snotgobbler destroyed my last pension!) I am also a part-time teacher in addition to managing the School IT system. Like many of todays employees in Education, I am paid Term Time Only - those "Long Holidays" are unpaid! As "Tonk" correctly points out, we are living longer and the current pension, designed when the average pensioner croaked within 5-10 years of retirement simply cannot cope, nor afford, pensioners living almost as long in retirement as in work. Granted the current Lib Dim government is hardly going to inspire confidence, and the current political choice appears to be between "Out of touch and Pig ignorant" and "Pig ignorant and Out of Touch" TTFN :)
ReplyDelete@Brian - whilst I agree with the general concept, I fear the details may need a little down-ward revision?
ReplyDeleteBTW - the OFFICIAL GMB union figure in favour of strike action was 4 to 1 (of the 33% who voted)
= 26.4% FOR - and 73.6% not.
That's 26.4% of a self-selecting cohort of about 1% of the population - 1 person in 35.
My wife has not had a pay rise for three years, and she is not going to get one, and she is not allowed to strike, and her employer is the Ministry of Justice! Her profession was offered a deal, which was not perfect, but had some good points. Her union turned it down. What happened. It was overturned, so now there is no deal because they would not accept it!
ReplyDeleteJeremy Clarkson is with you Brian
ReplyDelete"Shoot them in front of their families"
So fucking what if they have had a change in their contracts? Who cares?
ReplyDeleteThey have been changing their own salaries for years to meet their own greedy needs.
I am sure that the position of leader of Manchester City Council was never advertised or intended to carry a salary of more than the Prime Minister, but now it does.
Street Football Co-Ordinators, Traveller Liaison Officers and countless other worthless positions all carrying salaries in excess of 50K.
When the guy that shoves a broom along my street is earning £600 a week and the lazy bastard that empties my bin once a fortnight is being paid £1,000 a week; then I really don’t give a fuck that they may have to work a few more years or pay a little more into their already generous pension funds.
Teachers want their pay to increase every year for being progressively more useless, turning out unemployable teenagers that have a 90%+ pass rate for their ‘exams’ but still cannot string a sentence together.
Don’t try and tell me doctors are underpaid, ‘cos they fucking aren’t.
Customs Officers?..........Cunts. I am willing to bet that a huge percentage at any one time are being paid for being sick, and then retire early through stress, just like the police force.
Public sector workers……They all live in cloud cuckoo land. Bloated with their own sense of importance and worth. Pay them all the minimum legal wage. Even that is more than most of them deserve.
Ken Frost said..."Staff of the Bank of England are not on strike, because their pensions are on special terms."
ReplyDeleteWhat a surprise!
Anonymous said: "...Granted the current Lib Dim government is hardly going to inspire confidence, and the current political choice appears to be between 'Out of touch' and 'Pig ignorant' and 'Pig ignorant' and 'Out of Touch'"
I couldn't have summed them up better myself, which is why none of the three 'main' parties received my vote at the last general election: I support UKIP.
On a similar note to Ken's original post, if a little behind everyone here, I spotted one banner held aloft by a gullible child on TV (who brings their impressionable off-spring to these things anyway?) that started with something like:
ReplyDelete"Stop the cuts!
My teacher thinks your wrong...
My doctor thinks your wrong..."
[sic]
I hope the little darling didn't produce said banner with the help of *their/there/they're teacher.
* use your/you're own spelling here, as every other fucker seems to.