Reject public sector privatisation, as Cameron and Clegg ask for
‘boy scout’ solutions
8 July 2010
The coalition has been accused of seeking ‘boy scout’ solutions
by asking public sector workers what services should be axed.
Unite, the largest union in the country, said that the letter
that prime minister, David Cameron, and his deputy, Nick Clegg,
sent to public sectors workers borders on the ‘ludicrous.’
The letter exhorted staff to: ”Tell us your ideas about getting
more for less. Don’t hold back. Be innovative, be radical,
challenge the way things are done.“
But Unite said what its members wanted was an end to the
expensive privatisation of public services, rather than the axeing
of the local library, Sure Start centre or swimming pool, which is
on the cards due to the government’s austerity package.
Unite’s assistant general secretary for public services, Gail
Cartmail, said: ”What members are telling us is that they want an
end to the expensive privatisation of public services.
”They don’t want the axeing of vital local services, such as
nursery provision. The majority of the electorate in May didn’t
vote for the massive cuts programme now on the agenda.
”The fact that this letter has been sent out smacks of seeking
‘boy scout’ solutions. It is ludicrous to ask people for their
suggestions to make savings, when the government has already
decided on the biggest round of public sector cuts since the
1930s.“
Unite will be mounting a multi-layered Valuing Public Services
campaign in the coming months against the austerity measures that
the coalition government announced in the emergency budget in June
and which are expected in this autumn's comprehensive spending
review.
Gail Cartmail said: ”Unite's campaign will be geared to engaging
at the grassroots with community groups and activists to highlight
and oppose the threats to the local services - as this is what
George Osborne's measures mean in everyday reality.
”Unite will also be active nationally mobilising political,
economic and media opinion against the whole thrust of the
coalition's ideology, which is predicated more on the economics of
Milton Friedman than John Maynard Keynes.”
ENDS
Shaun Noble, Unite communications officer on 07768 693 940 or
Gail Cartmail on 07768 931 305
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