,
No wish to offend Unison members but having witnessed the distressing news that otherwise tough union bods couldn’t take a poorly constructed joke from Jeremy Clarkson in his usual bad taste style about last weeks public sector strike, I feel I should go easy.
Still having seen last week a never ending line up of, as I’ve mentioned before selfless nurses, teachers and other generally heroic public sector workers presented to the media by unquestioning reporters, I find it difficult to not comment. Taking a gander at the Gazette’s coverage, I was reassured to find them following the mainstream.
I was much surprised, by the claim of local Unison branch secretary Steve Albion, stating that many low paid women could not afford to take time off before Christmas, as far as I’m aware, employed workers are entitled to 28 days a year holiday, admittedly employers can dictate when holidays can be taken but really that statement is in my view completely misleading as of course is much of the propaganda by the Unions.
I can’t help also wondering how people are being manipulated in all this, taking a quick reference to the Thanet Trades Council and Anti Cuts Thanet campaign next meeting the Red Hall, Broadstairs, I wonder if it would be worth nipping over to their next gathering December 7th, 8pm and asking what, if any, relationship exists between themselves and the Marxist Socialist Workers Party?
Don’t get me wrong, I have the greatest sympathy with the low paid getting a fair deal and a living wage, and if you trawl back through this weblog you’ll find plenty examples, over the last few years, much of it criticism of Labour’s cynical betrayal of just such people in favour of cutting deals with big business such as the Murdochs.
The problem I have is that I don’t see why, the very lowest paid, working in the commercial sector, should be expected to pay tax to provide for pensions for say head teacher’s on seventy grand or council chief execs on hundreds of thousands or indeed middle ranking employees on say thirty grand plus.
It’s about time, that public sector workers stopped believing they’re special, at the end of the day, how cretinous do say teachers sound when bleating about having to work to sixty five, hardly a tough physical job, pity they give no consideration, to those doing manual jobs, creating the wealth so that thy can have three months holiday a year and an easy life.
Dont forget to ask how much the top Union bosses earn - all paiud for by the taxpayer
ReplyDeleteWithout Labour bringing in a minimum wage us lowly workers would be even worse off!
ReplyDeleteThanks Clive
ReplyDeleteTony says:
ReplyDelete"I find it difficult to not comment."
I wouldn't quite agree with this statement because it seems to be something you just can't let go of. Anyway, is repeating Daily Mail sourced simplifications of a complex issue the best way to "comment"?
What alternative system of funding public sector pensions and the pay of high end and middle management public sector workers do you propose? Privatisation by any chance? Lower pay and pensions? We need to be told I reckon.
Meanwhile highly paid public servants seem to enjoy the protection of Attorney General and MI6 ... Bev NEWMAN senior law officer Kent Clownstabulary and former Chief constable Mike FULLER
ReplyDeleteMany of the videos and reports (such as Mr PUTIN supporting the call for inquiry into Mike FULLER and the Carroll Foundation matters) seem to have disappeared from internet in the last 24 hours.
Also named is Ann BARNES the Magistrate Chair of Kent Police Authority. I know Kent tolerates magistrates who use shorthand like "Jew Do" for a holocaust remembrance event. And who seems to have engaged in some sort of brawl at the winter gardens. But I wonder what Ann BARNES JP is being accused of ?
Unison ? The publ;ic service union asked many years ago to concern itself with unreliable backup generators on NHS Hospitals. To consider the death of a child patient in Guts 1995 in post op intensive care when failure of a Petbow generator and mains switching unit (Multiple simultaneous failure) cut power to life support.
Funny how Labour MP Steve Graytrain did not want to get involved. What is a child death to do with him was the attitude. Unison were the same.
If Unison were right in their compacency at the highest level ? How come a couple of years ago, after I reported direct to Tony Blair, the NHS introduced comprehensive new security of electrical supply regul;ations for NHS hospitals.
Pushed for and gained not by the caring public sector or by theior caring union but by a concerned and determined citizen.
That should be Guys Hospital I slipped up using a nickname for it.
ReplyDeleteAnd another typo that should be Steve LADYMAN and not a reference to Gravytrain.
ReplyDeleteTony couldn't care less about working people getting a decent minimum wage, even less so will he actually give Labour credit for it.
ReplyDeleteThey were so hard up that they had to use their free parking permits to leave their cars in mill lane whilst they picketed!!
ReplyDeleteTony couldn't care less about anyone or anything unless it impacts directly on him. He seems driven by petty jealousy and clearly has no place in the Liberal Democrat Party. Unless they really have changed that much - for the worse.
ReplyDeleteCue the usual bile from him in reply at some point...
Let's all be honest about this and accept that there is a lot of propoganda on the issue eminating from both sides, unions and government. From the media one would also get the impression that every public sector worker does a rotten job for low pay. Some do, as some do in the private sector, but many do not.
ReplyDeleteThe Clarkson comment has also been blown out of all proportion and shows how we have seemingly lost the ability to laugh at ourselves. All in all, we seem to be fast becoming a humourless and divided overly PC society. Add the fact we are broke and it will all end in tears somewhere.
By the way, wasn't Lord Hutton a Labour minister or has he become a Tory now he supports the pension proposals?
I'd really be interested to know if Steve Albion had been misquoted or if he like to substantiate his extraordinary claim. Tonyflaig@gmail.com
ReplyDeleteAnd a big thanks labour supporters comments
Tony would make a perfect politician with his ability to avoid questions (Tesco & the minimum wage are just two very recent examples).
ReplyDelete"Thanet Trades Council and Anti Cuts Thanet campaign next meeting the Red Hall, Broadstairs, I wonder if it would be worth nipping over to their next gathering December 7th, 8pm "
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing this, I think I'll pop along, especially if it's been infiltrated by those Marxist Socialist Workers (sic)!!
I noticed, like you Tony, that the media were all on the side of the strikers, painting all those teachers, dinner ladies and coppers as hard done by! The Daily Mail, Express, Sun, Star, Sky News and Channel 5 news were the worst but what else can you expect from Marxist Socialist Commie Fascist lefties!!
The Red Hall, the home of protest which will fall into disuse the minute Labour take control of TDC and get a Labour MP again.
ReplyDeleteIn the run up to May's election it was the centre of the tree huggers determined to stop the nasty Tories building a new community centre. Now all forgotten.
Then it was Thanet Earth and sweat shop conditions and pay. All forgotten now the claims were exposed as a lie.
Live Animal Exports has seen all the tree huggers unchain themselves and rush over to the Nethercourt roundabout to shout at lorries, just to show their love for the animals they are terrifying inside.
So now it is Anti-cuts and Thanet Trades Council - now there is a strange label. What trades since they oppose everything that might bring some to Thanet.
Wonder how all these professional protestors would cope without their benefits!
Will, hurry along to Nigeria. And Tony, it's not only Labour supporters who challenge you and disapprove of your attitude and approach.
ReplyDeleteLabour couldn't give a stuff for low paid workers,the people they represent are public sector workers and anyone who can do they favours such as the Murdochs, who were happy have Blair and Brown as poodles, while it was business as usual.
ReplyDeleteMy Civil Service friend, many thanks for your concern and it looks like end of January for my African trip. In the meantime, you will just have to suffer my odd comments. Those about the Red Hall and its agitators were pretty spot on.
ReplyDeletePeter, that was not what Tony said, but he said Labour do not give a stuff for the workers.
ReplyDeleteSadly that is true which is why parties like Real Labour, Socialist Workers, Militant and even the Social Democrats, originally, spring up for they recognise Labour for what it is. The minimum wage was just window dressing, another slogan to brag about, but, in the main, it only fell on small employers. It cost Labour nothing.
Look at all the multi-millionaires that have emerged out of New Labour and then tell me that these people who point at rich Tories are not total hypocrites. Here's a little test for you, tell me the differences (apart from one has an ugly wife) between Blair and Cameron?
Income tax is unlawful.
ReplyDeleteIncome tax is a temporary tax, re-enacted annually since the Napoleonic wars (which were cooked up by the Rothschild brothers, and resulted in their coup of the LSE, the British economy and consequently the British empire).
A huge slice of our income tax goes to those banksters to pay interest on the national debt, to finance illegal wars overseas. The national debt is fictitious money, created by computer keystrokes... nice work if you can get it!
The rest of our income tax pays for this evil and ridiculous government's war against us.
The only reason we pay income tax is to avoid being banged up by officers of The Crown. NOT because the law says so, because it doesn't.
Income tax is set to be abolished in 2015 after the Rothschilds have been tried and imprisoned by we the people.
Speaking in Sheffield last week Nick Clegg said that the Coalition is determined to make sure that the
ReplyDeletepublic service pensions stay amongst the best available,but we are thankfully all living longer now.
Asking other taxpayers to work longer and pay more,if public workers are not prepared to do so themselves,does not seem fair.
I endorse that view, almost 1/2 of my Council tax goes into paying for their pensions,the public service workers should be thankful for what they get and not have to rely on the state pension like we do!
We are not living longer now.
ReplyDeleteThe current crop of pensioners have been more physically active and have enjoyed a largely organic diet, whereas younger generations will not enjoy such longevity and are already dropping like flies.
10:17 Your personal commentary on live expectancy or hard actuarial figures?
ReplyDeleteWhatever the differences between bygone generations diet and today's fast food, medical science comes on leaps and bounds and many diseases that once killed are now very treatable.
The budget has to be balanced on realistic forecast of life expectancy not fanciful claims. After all, the Earth may be hit by a large meteoreite or Iran might get the bomb, both of which could have a major impact (sic).
Common sense, old boy.
ReplyDeleteWe are enveloped in a harmful environment; emr from wi-fi/gsm, radioactive fallout from DU and nuclear power stations, toxic food additives, cancer viruses in vaccines, toxic waste in shampoos and toothpaste, etc, etc.
On top of which we are not consuming enough cancer fighting nutrients, due to modern farming techniques.
All of which is deliberate and planned, it's called eugenics.
The main reasons for the longer lifespans of the last century were the improvements in standard of living; good sanitation, comfortable dwellings, decent nutrition etc.
Naff all to do with medical science, that is just quackery.
All Tony means is that Labour did nothing for him personally. He couldn't care about the low paid or indeed anyone else.
ReplyDeleteWe are living longer but not if you live in Thanet where you can expect an early death. All the claims by government that in old age you will be a drain on your children wont apply to you in Thanet.
ReplyDeleteThere are enough serious thickos on these pages to make one wonder if mankind has made any advances at all.
ReplyDelete2:11 Suggest you take a stroll round Broadstairs or Birchington to see all these people you say are facing an early death. Most of them have already had two lives and are going round for their third.
ReplyDeletePeter why not keep to your specialist field, rather than branching out in to mind reading, you and others claim to have insight into what I think and feel, such arrogance.
ReplyDeleteI sincerely believe that Labour has In the last few years not given a flying toss for hard pressed working people the minimum wage is not a living wage, A fact
Gordon Blimey.
ReplyDeleteOn the Monday prior to the strike of public workers, the "METRO" Newspaper in London had some stark comparisons,
" a hospital porter earning £15,000
on retiriment after a full lifetime working would receive £6.000 per year with a lump sum of £19,700.
To get this from a private sector personal pension you would need to put away £200 per Month!
"A nurse earning £30,000 per year would oould receive £13,400 ayear with a lump sum of £39,400.
To get that from a personal pension
you would have to put away £400 per month!
"a middle ranking civil servant on £50,000 per year on full retirement after a lifetime career
could receive £21,900 with a lump sum of £65,000!
A head teacher retiring on a salary of £112,000 would receive £49,000 per year with a lump sum of £147.000.
To get that at the age of 65 rather than 60 from a private sector personal pension you would have to put away £1,300 a month!
No wonder the Labour Party's paymasters went on strike!they wanted to preserve the status quo
whilst we in the private sector carry on paying for their pensions.
Now Labour would like to run Thanet
again.
How can Labour supporters justify any more strikes.
Gordon Blimey.
ReplyDeleteOn the Monday prior to the strike of public workers, the "METRO" Newspaper in London had some stark comparisons,
" a hospital porter earning £15,000
on retiriment after a full lifetime working would receive £6.000 per year with a lump sum of £19,700.
To get this from a private sector personal pension you would need to put away £200 per Month!
"A nurse earning £30,000 per year would oould receive £13,400 ayear with a lump sum of £39,400.
To get that from a personal pension
you would have to put away £400 per month!
"a middle ranking civil servant on £50,000 per year on full retirement after a lifetime career
could receive £21,900 with a lump sum of £65,000!
A head teacher retiring on a salary of £112,000 would receive £49,000 per year with a lump sum of £147.000.
To get that at the age of 65 rather than 60 from a private sector personal pension you would have to put away £1,300 a month!
No wonder the Labour Party's paymasters went on strike!they wanted to preserve the status quo
whilst we in the private sector carry on paying for their pensions.
Now Labour would like to run Thanet
again.
How can Labour supporters justify any more strikes.
Anonymous 4:27
ReplyDeleteAnother person who has decided to join the Race-To-The-Bottom.
The "Metro"!! Says it all!
Very witty and enlightening, Gordon. In other words it say sweet FA.
ReplyDeleteG B the race to the bottom as you put surely must be well paid publicrats bleeding the poorest in the land to provide fat salaries and pensions for hundreds of thousands of non jobs
ReplyDeleteHow much do you think the minimum wage should be Tony?
ReplyDeleteFor my anonymous civil service jousting partner with whom I have exchanged and parried comments for some time, farewell my friend.
ReplyDeletePlans have suddenly all come together quicker than anticipated and I have much to do in too little time.
Have a good Christmas, hope you get back to work soon (don't want you going on half pay do we?) and try to keep an open mind.
Farewell and good luck Will Roberts. Take care of yourself.
ReplyDeleteNo Tony, the race to the bottom is when people like you get their way and both public and private sector workers, the majority of who get less than or around the average wage, have to pay into company pensions that they can't afford.
ReplyDeleteOnly 16% of private sector employees pay into a company pension. The same would surely happen under a privatised public sector. Then when these people come to retire, who picks up the bill for their state pensions?
The race to the bottom involves the corporatisation of our economy and the proliferation of minimum wage jobs as these multi-national giants compete in a globalised economy to see who can exploit our labour the most.
But this is something you right whingers fail to take into account as you consume a diet of Tabloid sensationalism, blaming every problem in sight on immigrants, dole scroungers, the public sector, unions, etc, etc.
Why aren't you and your fan club having the same sort of paroxysms over tax evasion, which is said to cost the UK economy between 40 and 120billion pounds. I hear no mention of the banks and financial services, who we now rely so heavily upon, and the way they nearly brought down the world's economies. Or how they are still paying themselves huge bonuses.
What about our disgusting housing problems, where over a million properties lie empty while over 2 million people are on the housing waiting list or subject to the whims and vagaries of the private property market?
If you hadn't noticed, the public sector has seen many of it's services contracted out to the private sector over the last 30 years. Successive governments have toed the neo-liberal line economically but have realised they can't do without a public sector to take care of important and essential services. Pay in the public sector has been cut over the years, as have staff numbers. Your tax goes into providing these services and so it should as we all benefit from them. Th public sector is far from ideal but maybe that is because it is often run on a shoestring budget. What's the alternative to this system? I still haven't heard from you indignant tax payers and your fine grasp of economics.
What is even more alarming is when Tony starts out a comment with "I sincerely believe..." then finishes it with "that's a fact". Your beliefs and opinions are NOT facts, Tony. And you accuse others of arrogance; go look in the mirror.
ReplyDeleteIs Gordon Blimey really Ian Driver?
ReplyDeleteNo.
ReplyDeleteHalliburton subsidiary to begin outfitting and staffing US detention camps.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.infowars.com/exclusive-government-activating-fema-camps-across-u-s/
0838
ReplyDeleteWho answered the question? Blimey or Driver or yet another anonymous third party? Talking of parties I suppose they are all, if indeed there really is more than one of them, members of Real Labour.
PS Give my love to Arthur!
I answered it!
ReplyDeleteWell ain't you the smartarse, 12:24!
ReplyDeleteYep!
ReplyDeleteTony, if you are on strike then you cannot clamim it as a holiday, in my scenario my annual salary was divided by 260 and the end figure is what will be missing from my wage packet.
ReplyDeleteRegarding your usual "anti-teacher" stance I think I've said that maybe you should go spend a week in a school, you'll soon realise that your usual ramblings about short work hours and long holidays is complete tosh...
and as for your "creating the wealth" bolloocks don't forget that public sector workers pay taxes and bills just like the private sector so chances are us public sector employees are paying your wages!
1 o'clock Rob, what bizarre economics and you are teaching our kids. Heaven help the poor little sods.
ReplyDelete@ 09:12, come and have a go if you think your brave enough.
ReplyDeleteTake off those rose tinted glasses first tho mate, the kids will eat you alive. Oh and leave all preconceptions at the door.
Amazing how teachers have become the new bankers and tax collectors, yet all those spewing bile aren't man or woman enough to spend even a single day in a school.
Oh well.
As co-owner of the Red Hall, I'm quite proud to be associated with defending the welfare state, the trees, and the planet!
ReplyDeleteChristine
Good for you Christine and have a nice Christmas
ReplyDelete