http://www.tuc.org.uk/economy/tuc-18392-f0.cfm?regional=5 Thousands of trade unionists will converge on the Liverpool convention centre to lobby delegates about Con Dem government policies which will decimate jobs and public services.
Danny Alexander MP, the Lib Dem bag carrier for Chancellor George Osborne, living up to his phoney billing as ‘axeman in chief’, will today accuse trade unionists of "spoiling for a fight" over the coalition's efforts to tackle the £155bn deficit.
Alexander’s heavily trailed speech is borrowed directly from the Conservative Central Office copybook:
"I would like to say one thing to nurses, teachers, police officers and civil servants. Thank you. Your ideas, your effort and your commitment are essential in helping people get the best from the services you provide. I know that the next few years will be tough, very tough for some. But I also believe that the changes we make - empowering you, trusting you, listening to you - will make the public services a more rewarding place to work.”
Workers across public services are experiencing a different reality - of pay freezes, job cuts, redundancies, and soon to come increased pension contributions and reduced pension benefits. Few will fall for Alexander’s vacuous divide and rule attack on the public sector unions organising their defence:
"I know there are a minority in the trade unions who will deliberately misrepresent what this Government stands for because they are spoiling for a fight. Please don't allow their political motivations to push you into doing the wrong thing for the country. We do not want to take you on. We want to take you with us."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-11359306
But UNISON GS Dave Prentis will tell the rally, "Who can trust the Liberal Democrats now? They have ditched the poor, the elderly and the vulnerable along with their election promises. Their thirst for power has led them to sell-out their own supporters.
“They must face up to the responsibility, that their assaults on public sector workers, will see hundreds and thousands of people out of a job. The impact of those cuts on local people who rely on those services will be devastating http://www.unison.org.uk/asppresspack/pressrelease_view.asp?id=1983
Meanwhile, there is more than one sign of tension in te Lib Dem camp with Shirley Williams remaining loyal but sending a shot across the bows on the NHS.
In the Guardian's 'comment is free', she writes, "Are Andrew Lansley's proposals for a massive reorganisation of the NHS another Conservative sacred cow? I hope not. The NHS, much improved by Gordon Brown's injection of extra money last year, is now delivering outcomes as good as the best European health systems, and much cheaper than the private US health system. Modest changes are in order but wholesale transformation to a system run by reluctant and inexperienced GPs dependent on private advisers could split the coalition." http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/sep/18/how-do-you-make-coalition-work
An opinion poll published on Saturday suggested that more than half of people who voted Lib Dem at May's election believed the party had "sold out" by joining a Conservative-led coalition. According to a Sunday Mirror and Independent on Sunday poll, 40% of people who supported the Lib Dems would not have done so if they had known what the result would be, reports the BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-11359306#story_continues_2