Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Why are there so many strikes at the end of a Labour government?

As per, Gordo ducked the question, preferring to talk about how many more working days were lost under the Tories.

Which is true: in 2007 we lost 1.03m working days to industrial action, a lot less than during the Thatcher 1980s, when we lost an average of 7.2m pa. But of course, Thatcher was taking on and beating Labour's union paymasters, including King Arthur's NUM. Thank God.

The answer to the question actually asked is that in the final months of the last Labour government, the Winter of Discontent lost us 29.5m working days. Which was miles worse even than the monstrous 12.9m pa lost during 70s as a whole.

Things are shaping up quite nicely for Gordo to challenge that record. Although he clearly lacks even Callaghan's backbone, so it's just as likely we'll have a series of massive public sector pay cave-ins. A point not lost on the public sector unions, who are talking about re-opening pay deals already agreed to reflect the new inflation realities.

PS Tanker drivers aside, most of the forthcoming strikes will be in the public sector. At nearly 60%, the union membership rate is around four times higher in the public sector than in the private. And as we blogged here, the average public sector worker goes on strike well over 100 times more frequently than his private sector counterpart.

BOM the book now available

Drawing on six years of blogging government waste, this book shows how we spend far more than we need on our public services. It sets out the facts and explores the underlying issues. Just why does government spend so much and deliver such second rate service? Why do we put up with it? And what are the alternatives?

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Despite all the talk of cuts, government still consumes nearly half our national income. Yet many tens of billions of its spending is wasted, with taxpayers made to pick up the tab for a depressing array of overpriced sub-standard services. This is money we can no longer afford, and our National Debt is already at danger level.

If we're to avoid further decades of stagnation and austerity we urgently need to find another way. Exposing and understanding the wastefulness of government is a necessary step in the right direction.