Originally published @ 9:50 pm, Thu 30th Jun 2011
Beyond the headline claims, both sides of the pensions dispute will be taking stock of the impact of today's strikes, both in terms of turnout by members and the strength of arguments rehearsed.
The unions can claim that the strike have brought the issues to the fore and given them a scrutiny that means reports like the one published in the Guardian are published saying the costs of public sector pensions are already set to fall. http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/jun/30/biggest-school-strikes-1980s-doubts-pension-reforms
Certainly, the notion that since state pensions are set to fall and private sector pensions have fallen, that public sector pensions must falll too has been challenged by the argument - "do we really want a race to the bottom"?
Natonal and regional TV gave the issue plenty of airing. East Midlands Today found a Chamber of Commerce Chair who said the disurption today had cost business £600m and Notts' share of this was £9million. Truly huge figures and I wonder how they're explained. And what happened to the equivalent cost of the damages caused by the bankers' crash.
As my friend Brian Parbutt says - "Remember when teachers, police officers, ambulance staff, hospital staff, nurses, doctors and firemen crashed the stock market, wiped out banks, took millions in bonuses and paid no tax? No, me neither."
The Nottingham march and rally was pleasant enough and the First of May band (check) did 4 of their songs, including "too big to fail". They're not a bad band by "left" standards but the vocalist's style certainly lay it on thick.
Their songs echo 2 particular messages what we need to keep repeating -
- a cabinet of millionaires can't convincingly say we're all in this together;
- the elite of the financial sector are not taking the hit being asked of other public and private sector workers.
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