Wrong kind of government

By Dave Prentis, General Secretary of UNISON

It isn’t the wrong kind of snow that becalmed our economy. It’s the wrong kind of government, with the wrong kind of policies. Trotting out the mantra that there is no alternative to deep and massive cuts in public spending is no substitute for a sound economic policy. The country desperately needs a policy that puts investment and growth at its heart. And we all know that there is plenty of money around, that is if you are in the banking sector.

News out today reveals that UK bankers get bigger bonuses than those in other countries. On average the typical British banker or financial professional in London received a bonus that was 5% higher than last year. Their average bonus was £85,000 – nearly four times what the average nurse earns in a year, or 8 times what someone on the minimum wage earns in a year. It is worth recording, too, that American bankers received bonuses on average 5% less than last year.

Public sector workers have had their pay frozen and face the prospect of losing their job. Research published by UNISON at the weekend found that 100,000 public sector jobs had gone in the past 6 weeks and the worst is yet to come. Benefits are cut and those on sickness or incapacity benefit dubbed as “skivers”, aided and abetted by the right-wing media.

Unemployment figures also make grim reading – 2.5 million out of work and a sad, bleak future for many families, and young people losing hope as nearly one million (one in five) can’t find a job. And many will be deterred by the staggering debt they could face paying off if they go on to higher education. I find it incredible that the government on the one hand proclaims how absolutely imperative it is to not have debt, yet on the other, encourages a whole generation to get up to their necks in debt.

The private sector is not able to ride to the rescue; and clinging to the hope that individuals made redundant will set up small businesses and generate jobs is plain daft. Take away people’s spending power and small local businesses such as hairdressers, pubs, bars, restaurants, go under. The only people spending money are the very rich, but you won’t see them down the local Dog & Duck or in the corner shop.

And still, despite this week’s figures showing growth shuddering to a halt, with catastrophic warnings that families face the toughest times since the 1920s, this government just plods along, obsessed with “shrinking the state”, rather than doing what is best for our society.

There is another way, a better way and, dare I say it, a fairer way. And we all have to pull together to get support for that alternative. All over the country, anti-cuts groups, communities, trade unions, pensioners, students are coming together to speak out against the pernicious spending cuts. The unions are mobilising their members to show their strength of feeling and take to the streets for the TUC march on March 26th. The Labour leadership has to harness the energy and anger of a betrayed electorate and deliver blow upon blow on the government’s failing policies.