The Tories have an attitude towards Public Services: they regard them in the same way as they look at parasites – unwelcome.
The Tories regard Public Services as an unproductive drain on resources. They wish to reduce them to a minimum and curb pay for public servants.
The Tory ethos is that it is the Private sector that generates wealth. That is where the money should go. We can do without the Public sector.
This is short-sighted. While the Public sector does not generate the wealth directly it is essential to enabling the wealth generators to function. I would make the analogy to the army. The soldier may be the effective force at the front-line but without a munitions industry making the bullets, a transport industry to get them to the front, food, water and information they are helpless.
The Public services provide essential back-up.
We need our teachers, nurses, doctors, road workers, social workers, fire-fighters, police and council workers.
If you look in the field of education (that I happen to know something about) this is obvious. The workforce who are going to power the country and create the wealth are only able to do so because they have been properly educated. Every parent wants their sons and daughters to receive a first-rate education. They want nice schools which are properly equipped, excellent teachers who are well-motivated and a curriculum that stimulates their children.
If you don’t put the money into the system it falls apart. If you don’t pay properly then you do not attract the best. If you have poor work conditions and pension schemes you end up with demotivated staff. If you do not have the money to buy equipment lessons become substandard and boring. If you do not repair buildings they rapidly become dilapidated. You end up with a poor quality service.
The Tory answer is to introduce competition and threat. They deploy Ofsted as a weapon bring in business and use the big stick.
Result – the best teachers leave. The ones left are depressed. The children suffer.
I’ve witnessed it first hand.
The same is true for the Health Service, the Police, The Council Workers, The Fire Service, Social Services and the rest. They are all being paid less, have worsening conditions, reduced numbers, poorer pensions and expected to perform at the same standard. If I get ill I want to be operated on by one of the best. If I get mugged I want the police to sort it out. If my house catches on fire ……..
The rich buy in private to ensure they get the best. The rest of us have to make do with what’s left.
The infrastructure and support provided by the Public Services is a crucial part of the economy. They contribute!
Don’t believe the lies! We should have the best education, health care, policing, fire service, road maintenance, social care and environmental standards. You cannot do that on the cheap!
Yet when the public services go on strike the government is quick to point out how much the public services do do..these services are doing the jobs that makes our society worth living in,but that’s going to cost.personally I’d rather pay more tax for that than have a privatised company doing a half arsed job( until their contract runs out of course)
I quite agree. They can’t have it both ways can they? But they successfully turned people against the Public Services by claiming they had these golden pensions and job security while everybody else had insecurity and pension cuts. It deflected the attention of the real reasons people had pension cuts and job insecurity. There has been a war waged against the Public Services. I think it will come to a head soon.
I think the average NHS pension is around 4 grand a year, I worked for them for 15 years and expect a pension of just over 5 grand pa for that so as usual it’s about spin rather than reality.
It is disgusting the way they get away with it. Some of the pensions in the Public Service are among the worst in the country. Gold plated? I think not. It was all about demonising the Public sector so that they could slash the hell out of them and nobody will give a damn. People will start bleating when they realise the crime is going through the roof, they can’t get a hospital bed or good care from Agency staff, and all the best teachers leave. It’ll be too late then though. Cheers – Opher (You got me going again).
Reblogged this on Opher's World and commented:
This Tory agenda is to decimate our social services. They cut the poor rather than the rich every time. Cuts for public servants/tax cuts for the wealthy. But ordinary people depend on those services! The cuts are unfair.