Are the public sector employed middle classes sleepwalking into disaster?

[wellyman]

So healthy that he had to go cap-in-hand to the IMF.

 

Who was doing all the 'pay restraint'? - Would that be Mr Solomon Binding?

 

My pay was pretty poor back then, but I wasn't a striking miner/car maker/fireman/dustman/council worker.

 

The saving grace was that British Leyland were on strike all the time thus sparing the public twice the number of Marinas and Allegros all sponsored by the taxpayers.

[mossdog]

Because Pensions are deferred pay, it is the reason people have worked in the public sector when they could have worked for higher pay in the private sector. What the Tories are suggesting is currently illegal, breach of contract on a massive scale.

Higher pay in the private sector? don,t talk daft,everyone knows it is much easier to hide value for money in the public sector than the private sector.Lots in the public/sector would soon get their marching orders in the private/sector,that's why so many businesses are closing down because people cannot hide anymore!

[mossdog]

You are joking are you? Why would someone train for 10 or so years to become a surgeon or an anaesthetist to then not get paid more than £50k for working 40+ hours a week?

Anaesthetists don't need to train anywhere near 10 years in China to stick a needle in someone and probably work for £5k per year not £50k.The going salary rate for most professionals in UK is no longer sustainable and need huge reductions.The world is changing fast sunshine and we are all going to have to get used to it!

[JFKvsNixon]

Anaesthetists don't need to train anywhere near 10 years in China to stick a needle in someone and probably work for £5k per year not £50k.The going salary rate for most professionals in UK is no longer sustainable and need huge reductions.The world is changing fast sunshine and we are all going to have to get used to it!

 

Sorry, there seems to have been a bit of a mix up, I was taking you seriously.

[JFKvsNixon]

It was the govenor of the bank of England

 

It was the economist David Hale who was quoting Mervyn King

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/apr/29/mervyn-king-warns-election-victor

[Br8inend]

I ask this question because I was out the other night with some friends, most of whom were professional types in the NHS and education sysyem. They were not what you might call traditional Tory types but some of them were criticising the Labour govt about this, that and the other.

IMO things may not exactly brilliant at the moment but my god, if the Tories are re-elected many of them will probably be out of work with the HUGE public spending cuts the Tories are planning. Is it time for them to get real?

 

Good , they may have some empathy for the working class. What will they do?. Commit suicide probably. What all middleclass people do not realise is the world is changing to a few very rich people and the rest poor.

They will be no middleclass soon.

[wednesday1]

You would like the next government to have to make savage cuts?

 

Everybody knows there are going to have to be cuts in some public services.

I know which party I wouldn't trust to make the required efficiencies on a fair basis to ensure that those who can least afford don't end up paying the most interms of hospitals, schools, council services, policing etc.

 

A leopard never loses it's spots especially a Tory one.

[I1L2T3]

The way I see it you have the Libs and Labs being less draconian in terms of cuts. Their cuts will be bad and they have admitted perhaps much worse than the 1980s but there is that period of grace while they continue to try and stabilise the economy a little more. It will be horrendous but at least there will be some time to prepare.

 

The conservatives are campaigning on a platform of savage, immediate cuts. These have been planned by Osbourne and Cameron. They have no incentive to go easy on traditional non-conservative areas. The cuts will be indiscriminate, perhaps vindictive and given their previous efforts in the north we have no reason to be optimistic.

 

To get back to the original question of are the middle classes sleepwalking into disaster then if they are living outside the Tory heartland and considering a Tory vote then yes they are. Turkeys voting for Christmas. And while they needlessly destroy people's lives the Torys will be making the rich even richer.

[mossdog]

Sorry, there seems to have been a bit of a mix up, I was taking you seriously.

I agree you do seem to be mixed up.........but don't worry about it!

[mossdog]

The last time Labour screwed up the economy the government had to go cap-in-hand to the IMF. Perhaps Cameron is merely being pragmatic. As for "Killing off Labour for the forseeable future' I wouldn't count on it.

 

 

 

Thatcher's unpopularity stemmed from the cuts she was forced to make to get the country out of the hole Wilson and Callaghan had dropped it into.

 

Perhaps it would be a good idea to re-elect Labour. Whoever gets in is going to have to make savage cuts and may not be in power for very long.

Never realized when I used to read my old Rupert annuals,that one day you would grow into a wise bear with such pungent comment regarding political events.Must reread and see if there are any clues!