Selective Amnesia

Cllr Tapp(27/2 letters) would appear to be suffering from selective amnesia. It was the Tories who sold off the Council houses that has created a housing apartheid. It is very difficult now for first time buyers and the people, who’s families have lived for generations, having to leave their local villages because of the high costs associated with living outside the towns.
It was the Tories who introduced PFI’s to build our Hospitals who can no longer afford to pay the rent.
It was the Tories who sold off the Utility companies to introduce competition, which has turned out to be nothing more than a racket.
We were told that those of us who do not use public transport shouldn’t be subsidising those that do, so the Tories sold the buses off and fragmented the rail transport system. We now subsidise that shower of s**t to the tune of £6b a year. 60% of the bus transport turnover is in subsidies.
Instead of the usual party diatribe, why don’t you start tackling the white elephant in the room, there aren’t enough jobs to go round. 
I heard that the Tories would be the “greenest Government ever”, if that be the case, create some real jobs by upgrading existing roads and rail infrastructure and implementing a free public transport system. It would stimulate the economy by moving people around quicker, an argument being put forward by the High Speed 2 racket, and giving people on lower incomes more disposable income. Never mind the reducing top rate of tax for the wealthy, it is the rest of us at the bottom who generate real demand.
Let’s have a low carbon economy where we can all benefit from cleaner air, cheaper travel and less congestion and accidents. Oh, sorry I forgot, governments don’t work for us, they work for “them”.
Concentrate on moving forward Cllr Tapp and don’t use terms like “responsible Capitalism” there’s no such thing.

It’s a Tory Legacy not a Labour mess

The Tories are now having to deal with a mess they instigated back in the 80’s. The privatisation of pensions and the selling off of state run assets has lead to the current crises. New Labour merely carried on where the Tories left off with the help of a working class veneer.
With unfettered access to large amounts of money in pension funds and demutualised building societies the City have developed a whole new language in creative accounting.
Our drive to become a shareholder economy has had a disastrous effect on jobs and wages, farmed out abroad and reduced to increase dividends, and in the most recent example of cutting costs, BP, Gulf of Mexico, a detrimental effect on the environment.
Our once state run assets, sold on the cheap, are now run by foreign state owned companies, clearly the French, German and Dutch Governments had a better game plan for their people.
Don’t be fooled by what the Tories are now saying, the system was bust regardless of who was at the helm. Devoid of any detail prior to the General Election, all three main parties knew how bad cuts would be, it was like pulling teeth trying to get them to talk about job losses and the severity of the spending cuts. Now that they are in power, the Tories are more concerned about what the city thinks than any of the electorate, foolish enough to vote for them, worried about their jobs.
6 billion in cuts is the figure bandied about by the media over the last few months, but that is only a taster. It will cost us 4 billion per month just to pay the interest off on the debt. Years of austerity and a breadline pension to look forward to, no matter which of the three main parties got in. So much for change then.

Anyone for Privatisation

Hello Gordon,

Here are my answers to your questions.

• PCS is campaigning for fair pay for its members, meaning that pay should increase at least in line with inflation and be negotiated nationally instead of 200 separate sets of negotiations across the civil service and NDPBs. Do you support PCS’s campaign for fair and equal pay for public servants?

 

I do support the notion of fair and equal pay. I would also look at the idea of affordable or cheaper housing cost for key workers to reduce the burden on said wages.

• Do you support trade union campaigns on the working-time directive (which gives workers the legal right to 4 weeks paid holiday)?

 

I would look at ways of reducing the current workload, employing more staff and allowing more free time for the pursuit of leisure. Is that not what life should be all about ?

• The government has proposed £15 billion in efficiency savings in addition to already cutting over 100,000 civil and public service jobs. They claim these cuts will not impact on service delivery to the public, however every day our members are seeing how less staff means a poorer service to the public. Where do you stand on cutting civil and public service jobs?

 

A complete overhaul of the management structure would be an effective long term view on savings. The workers on the shop floor can see at first hand much of the waste out there. By having a bottom up approach to effective management and an invitation of suggestions at all levels. I am aware of allocation of budgets in some departments, if not spent in financial year is lost or reduced the following year, encourages waste on unnecessary purchases or works carried out. If more could be carried over it would actually save money.

•  HMRC has a national office closure programme and despite rising unemployment some DWP offices are still threatened with closure. Do you think in the current climate that office closures should be halted?

 

No, I don’t think they should be closed. It is false economy to pay people to sit at home in receipt of unemployment benefits, when there is demand for this particular type of service. It would be far more constructive to keep these people in work and able to spend more in the local economy.

• PCS is concerned over further privatisation of the civil service. We believe this is costly and unnecessary and jeopardises services being delivered to the public, often to the most vulnerable in our society. Where do you stand on privatising public services?

 

One of the reasons for getting involved in politics is the privatization issue. The debate over public or privatized services is something I feel strongly about. Public services should not be run using a profit model, it should be about good services and good management. You only have to look at public transport to see how shambolic the system is when the services are run purely for profit and not service.

•  Are you aware of the EPSU pledge about privatising public services and are you prepared to support it?

 

I’m aware of it now, and I would refer you to my last answer. I support it wholeheartedly.

• Do you think more tax staff should be employed to collect the taxes, closing the tax gap?

 

If Britain was a factory and there was reports of thefts being carried out, I would start with the main frame computers going missing than concentrating my efforts in the pencil department, analogues to tax loopholes and benefit cheats. So yes I would bring more staff to investigate the bigger fish and so called non-doms.

• Do you think EU countries should more closely co-operate to close loopholes which allow the super rich and big business to avoid tax?

 

Personally, I believe that Governments and big business are one of the same. Therefore we need to weed out the corruption in this country before turning our attention to the EU.

• Do you support an extension of this ban to other civil and public services?

 

It isn’t a clear cut solution to the problem with these extremist groups. Banning people from supporting groups and trying to stop their message from getting out only helps to feed them. Open debate would counter their claims of main stream parties running scared. I would prefer them to get their message out and then highlight the need for good education. The lack of one leading to ridiculous views that some of these parties have !