Kevin Maguire predicts that 2011 will be a year of resistance to 'tax rises, benefit cuts, wage freezes, job losses, evictions, bus and train fare increases and so many axed services it’d take me until New Year’s Eve to list them all': http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/opinion/2010/12/29/let-s-make-2011-an-annus-horribilis-for-david-cameron-115875-22812634/
Maguire points out that the victims of the self-described “child of Thatcher” will be 'ordinary, decent people who didn’t create a financial crisis – the banksters did – but will be forced to pay as the great deficit deceiver wilfully cuts, cuts then cuts again in a reckless, ideological frenzy'.
He concludes his upbeat analysis with a call to action but also a warning to Labour Leader Ed Miliband: 'there is an alternative and it’s worth fighting for. Next year is when the proper battle commences. The year coming to an end was shadow boxing from May onwards. From January 1 the fight is real and Cameron will be on the defensive. Maybe the austerity coalition will hold, maybe it’ll be fractured. But it needs Ed Miliband to go on the offensive. So don’t fluff it, Mr Labour leader. Because people deserve better. And you won’t get a second chance'.
The same could be said of those of us active in trade unions - history will not be kind to us if we meekly acquiesce in the destruction of public services and the attacks on the jobs and living standards of our members working in the public services. We did not fight hard for our pay and conditions only for them to be sacrificed on the altar of Con Dem cutbacks. The easy choice is to compromise. The real tough choice is to fight back in the manner advocated by Maguire.
