Paul Waugh from Politics Home earlier tweeted:
Osborne says Royals cost us 51p per person per year.
I have no doubt that George Osborne’s figures are accurate for the direct cost of the Royals*. But isn’t it interesting how when Osborne is talking about something that he wants to spend money on (and you can’t get much more Royalist than true blue Tories like our beloved Chancellor) it’s presented in a way that tries to make it look miniscule?
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Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude and the general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) union Mark Serwotka clashed on the BBC Today programme this morning.
Maude said the government was taking part in the talks in “good faith” and they were “making progress”, but wouldn’t say what he was prepared to negotiate over.
He also said the Hutton report made it clear that the curent system was “untenable”, and avoided repeating Cameron’s claim that the system would “go bust”.
But when presenter Evan Davis pushed him to clarify his remarks – he stumbled badly.
The staggering part isn’t that the government has continually lied on this issue, it’s that this is the first time someone in the broadcast media have caught them out on it.
London Mayor Boris Johnson has renewed his call for industrial action ballots only to be valid if the turn-out is more than 50%.
Superficially that might sound just a bit democratic, but the reality is that it is simply about erecting a hurdle that will make official strike action extremely hard to achieve.
Let us take a hypothetical workforce of 1,000.
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Up to 750,000 public sector workers are expected to strike today over planned changes to their pensions.
Schools are expected to close, most universities have cancelled lectures and asignificant numbers of civil servants will strike. There’s a large march in central London too.
So here’s our all-singing all-dancing coverage of what’s going on, with plenty of video, pictures and reports from the ground.
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TUC analysis, published today, shows that by this time next year (if the Government’s proposed pension contribution increases go ahead) workers across the public sector will find they are experiencing a living standards drop of up to 10%.
The livelihoods squeeze is absolutely not a public sector only phenomenon: workers across the private sector are also experiencing below inflation pay rises with average private sector settlements currently running at 3%, while inflation is at 5.2%.
But the public sector – where pay is currently frozen and remuneration is not generally higher than for private sector workers – is really set to feel the pain.
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On the day of one of the biggest public-sector strikes for decades, the Indy has this awesome front page.
All credit to them for pointing this out.
hat-tip @suttonnick
Commenting ahead of the public sector strikes across the country tomorrow, Green party leader Caroline Lucas today said she planned to join the picket line.
Many teachers and other public sector workers have contacted me over the past week to express hope that striking wouldn’t be necessary – that the Prime Minister would start taking their pension concerns seriously. Sadly the Coalition Government’s relentless attack on this country’s public servants has left them with no choice.
We know that public sector pensions are affordable – this is really about piling the UK’s debt burden onto the people who did the least to create it. I believe that fair pensions are worth fighting for, so I will be joining the picket lines in solidarity with my constituents who have been abandoned by the other main Westminster parties.
This isn’t something I do lightly. I regret the disruption caused by industrial action and think it must only be used in special circumstances – and would urge trade unions to work hard to ensure support from the wider public.
Yet when teachers are being expected to pay 50% more in pension contributions, work longer and get less pension when they retire – and when negotiations are failing – targeted and considered action is clearly necessary.
On Twitter, Labour MPs such as John McDonnell and Jeremy Corbyn also said they planned to join picket lines tomorrow in solidarity with unions.
George Osborne believes in the absurd theory of expansionary fiscal contraction. It’s worth giving the notion a few minutes of thought since his belief is currently wrecking the lives of millions in this country and the prospects of millions more.
Expansionary fiscal contraction is what is called a ‘general equilibrium model’ based on the ideas of neoliberal economics. For the wonks there’s an explanation here. .
What this means in fairly lay terms is that the model assumes that we know the future.
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52% of the public oppose calls by the education secretary Michael Gove asking parents to volunteer to help on Thursday in order to keep schools affected by strike action.
Only 37% of people, predominantly Conservatives, welcomed the call, according to a poll by YouGov today.
The poll also found that 47% of people opposed the government’s changes to public sector pensions, with only 37% supporting them.
Labour voters were overwhelmingly opposed, at 70%, with Libdems more evenly split. It seems the right-wing media campaign to destroy support for the unions has not worked.
Support for the teachers’ strikes themselves was slightly lower though.
40% of the public supported the strikes on Thursday, while 49% were opposed. Labour voters were overwhelmingly supportive (65%).
I had a front page splash in Metro, the nationally distributed freesheet, last year. Not that I got a byline for it, or still less a cheque. They simply nicked my work – including the money shot quotes – and passed it off as their own, without attribution of the source.
Congratulations, guys. Only five days late, as well. While I was vaguely pissed off at the time, in the end I let it ride. It wasn’t a particularly great story, anyway. But the point is, if they have done that to me, they have presumably stiffed many other working journos too.