March Against the Cuts

[Guest Anonymous]

Maybe if labour had tried to cut the deficit years ago instead of their spend now borrow now, pay when the tories get in power and bitch loudly then policy the cuts would not be needed.

 

Well there's no maybe about it.

[shetlandpeat]

Yawn.....

 

Could you answer the question, it is quite important.

 

I know that the banks had nothing to do with THE HUGE WORLD PROBLEM Or those using loop holes to avoid tax.

 

Why are so many other countries going through the same, especially the right wing GOV of USA at the time. So the Global problem hit all.

 

Oh, could you answer the question about the report of the GOV and the tax loop holes...thanks bud

[Urabug]

Well the greedy incompentent bankers ect certainly have not helped the situation but the real problem goes way way back , & it's called industrial action.

 

Now I been a union member for many years & have reaped the benefits that they have acheived for us all but this has all been gained at a very high price .

 

Remember Jack Jones,Jimmy Reid ,Arthur Scargill ect ect how they promised us & our families all better wages ,working conditions .

 

How many of us & our families have jobs in the car industriy ,ship building, steel , merchant navy ect ect.

 

The answer is very few as our union chiefs killed the goose that laid the golden egg.

 

We priced ourselves off the market & now we pay the price .

 

You cannot get blood out of stone this country is broke

 

Only hard work & moderation will get this country back to where it should be ,afraid that marching the streets demanding will not solve the problem

 

British airways union bosses are the very problem we need to get away from,why on earth would they want to risk there jobs at a time like this.

 

Better to have a little ,than nothing at all

[JustMe]

^^Sadly Urabug is right to say that some unions seem to be intent on killing off their industry and his example of the British Airways dispute is one where I would dearly love to see sense knocked into the union leaders or even better the union membership to see sense and not vote for strikes. My plane ticket south this summer says Flybe. Northbound is likely to be on the boat and all because with the threat of more strikes I am not going to book with BA. OK so losing my little bit of business will not break the airline but just think of all the passengers worldwide who have quietly booked flights with an alternative airline or, in the case of tourists, have just decided to give the UK a miss.

 

Came close to cancelling part of my own holiday due to continued industrial action on the railways. And it is still possible that I will decide to give Wales a miss since they keep having rail strikes. And might also miss out London because the RMT keeps calling strikes on the underground. Again I will not harm either destination that much by my actions but the cumulative effect will eventually lead to substantial loss of revenue.

 

What does really annoy me about the large and still relatively militant unions within the UK is not just that they seem determined to ruin the industries they work in but that somehow they never seem to get involved with people who really do need some help like immigrant labour (both legal and illegal) being exploited. Maybe they should try helping the poor people who need them most even though they are not members.

 

Not something I intend to go to but the London Underground has announced that it intends to run later trains during the period of the Olympic Games. Instant comment from the RMT union

But the RMT union, which had been locked in dispute with TfL over job losses, had warned them to expect a battle about overtime pay for night staff.

Expect a battle?. Mind readers are they. With no idea of what TFL are going to offer they use words like "Expect a battle". Sooner this country gets rid of unions like this the better for all concerned.

[Brian]

somehow they never seem to get involved with people who really do need some help like immigrant labour (both legal and illegal) being exploited

 

Before making statements like this, it is best to do some research. Look up, for instance, the sterling work that John Stevenson of Edinburgh UNISON and his colleagues in Aberdeen have done and are doing in the field.

 

But I almost hesitate saying this, because I have no doubt that some Daily Express-admiring Shetlink gink will come back to say that unions are cosseting immigrants ...

[Brian]

Is Urabug's most recent contribution a proposed contribution to the Dictionary of Cliches?

[shetlandpeat]

The trouble with the right wing, well one of the troubles is they expect folk to lay down and die because they say, they think public employees are to blame for the banking crisis around the world.

 

Now privatising more prisons, with one on a pay on results scheme. Who ever buys into that will need allot of spare cash. They say, Clark that is, prisons run for profit is not going to happen. So y would a company risk all for no gain, I wonder who is on the board of directors? There will be a cut somewhere.

I did not realise how many private jails there were. So we must now not just blame the Prison Service but the private sector as well for the failing rehabilitation program.

[unlinkedstudent]

The trouble with the right wing, well one of the troubles is they expect folk to lay down and die because they say, they think public employees are to blame for the banking crisis around the world.

 

Now privatising more prisons, with one on a pay on results scheme. Who ever buys into that will need allot of spare cash. They say, Clark that is, prisons run for profit is not going to happen. So y would a company risk all for no gain, I wonder who is on the board of directors? There will be a cut somewhere.

I did not realise how many private jails there were. So we must now not just blame the Prison Service but the private sector as well for the failing rehabilitation program.

 

What utter tosh. During my time I've been a member of the SWP (When I was at school), went on the steel strike marches, been a member of the Green Party (Didn't agree with everyone being paid the same wage so left), assisted a friend who also happened to be a liberal councillor, and also joined the local Conservative Association (left that too). I have friends and relatives who are union activists, some of whom are Tory.

 

Yes, there are worldwide problems with the banking system but there is also the massive problem of people borrowing beyond their means and the banks being daft/greedy enough to lend them money. The "right wing" people I know most certainly do NOT expect people to "lay and down and die"; indeed, they expect a welfare system to be fairer (Although I've yet to come across a Government yet that has one that will meet all needs) but to expect people to work and take more responsibility for themselves, where and if possible.

 

I've worked in both the private and public sectors. The most waste I have seen has been, unfortunately, within the public sector. I don't agree with pension cuts in either sector.

 

Prisons run by private companies have existed for years. Over 20 years ago I temped at a firm of architects responsible for designing one. Somebody off the Board of Prison Visitors came to the offices one day and remarked how well thought out it was and well-designed compared to many existing prisons. With regard to your comment about failing rehabilitation programmes, that lies with civil servants (oops, they public servants) who put forward their ideas to politicians. Many a policy, and not just regarding the criminal justice system, gets agreed on recommendations from so called experts - dear oh dear, many of whom are public servants.

[shetlandpeat]

Thanks for that, it was a general statement.

 

Perhaps folk should take note then. GOV policies are dictated some what by the Humphries of the political world. Not always the idea of the elected servant.

The SWP, I too was a member and did allot of work with the ANL, until on a protest they ANL folk directed their anger at ethnic police officers putting one in hospital for a while, that is when I left both groups and many more as well. Happily that spell in the SWP only last a few months.

 

The right wing in our bolitical service do expect personal sacrifice, hence the 600 - 1000 % or so increase in some fees. (As you said, the political bods make the choice of what is suggested to them.) Who will suffer with that? Only the folk who use them, the elderly and so on. So, the choice for those folk is to spend the cash they have saved all their life or sell the house to pass on to their children or spend it on supporting themselves. Why would you buy insurance all your life, then not be able to claim on it when you need it? We are all in it together, yet, at the moment, we are not. The only folk I know who have been discarded are hard workers but due to their lack of a deviant nature, they were fair, and got potted.

The NHS was doing very very well, lower complaints, happy customers and better conditions, but why would the GOV suppress that news from the public. After all they made the choice not to fully release the news, instead continually blaming now just one guy for the whole banking/world crisis.

 

The 1500 pound assistance for new generation of self employed, managed by an American Company....If they are the best then so be it, yet that fact was not made public but became public.

 

 

 

We have one of the highest level of Private Prisons in the EU. If they were paid on results, do you think the current re-offending rate would differ. It may be why only 1 out of the 3 are with those terms, so the surplus (profit) from the other two will prop up the third until it pays.

 

It is ok for folk to be more responsible for themselves, but you cannot turn off the source and then hope they become that. Many will not be prepared mentally, financially or logistically, there has to be an easing into this thing.

 

It sorta seems that we are being punished for not going blue or even "Green" with the current mix.