A much neglected aspect of the 'European debate' is the extent to which the EU is a driving force for the liberalisation and privatisation of public services. Judith Clifton writing for the LSE's British politics and policy blog, examines how local and national governments have lost power over key areas of public service governance to Brussels. The Council of European Municipalities and Regions has complained that the European Commission 'proclaims to be neutral but in practice veers towards applying internal market rules to public services in an overly-market focused way, eroding local democracy'
http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/beyond-hollowing-out-straitjacketing-the-state/
'It’s time Britain had a pay rise' the Tory Prime Minister told the British Chambers of Commerce on Tuesday. But Tory Ministers were quick to point out that Cameron's Damascene conversion to fairness at work does not apply to public sector workers. Within hours of his Leader's speech, Business Minister Matthew Hancock told Radio 4's the World at One that 'we've got to make sure we keep a tight constraint on public sector pay' and then later on the same day popped on Newsnight to shamelessly make the point that 'public sector productivity has gone up pretty sharply in the past 5 years'.
It's about time UNISON made mincemeat of these contradictory and divisive attacks on our members now that wages are centre stage in the political debate. As Simon Jenkins stated in the Guardian: 'If he had the courage of his economic conviction, Cameron would do the same for the public sector. He can hand out bonuses to welfare recipients and state workers without bruising his deficit reduction strategy. He can print them. He found £375bn overnight to give the banks with no risk of inflation. He can do it again'
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/feb/10/david-cameron-britain-pay-rise-cough-up-public-sector-welfare
How can an incoming Labour Government lift Britain out of the swamp of austerity, privatisation and run down public services, especially given the conventional wisdom that further spending cuts and job losses are required beyond May 2015? David Coats and John Tizard, in a timely New Statesman article, see a key role for public service unions as 'agents of change, fostering workplace cultures where employees understand their role in the process of continuous improvement' and advocate 'collective agreements (to) set the employment conditions for all workers involved in public service delivery – including those employed by the business, social and voluntary sectors and subcontractors.'
http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2014/11/labour-and-unions-must-develop-alternative-public-sector-pay-freeze
UNISON's Scottish Secretary Mike Kirby has issued a post-referendum statement calling for the union to play its part in bringing Scotland together and campaigning for a just and fairer society. The first step is on
15 and 18 October when UNISON will join the STUC and Poverty Alliance conference and rally as part the Challenge Poverty Week.
Mike says UNISON will expect promises on powers to be honoured but warned about the debate getting bogged down in that alone: "...as we stated at the beginning of the referendum campaign the real question is how new or indeed existing powers are to be used for the benefit of working people."
The full statement is below:
Opinion polls have consistently shown a massive majority for the return of outsourced services to public ownership. Yet the privatisation juggernaut is bulldozing through the NHS and probation services at an unprecedented speed. Despite overwhelming evidence that it is in the public interest, Labour’s leadership is resisting pressure to include renationalise rail services. Anne Karpf, writing in the Guardian, calls for a ‘new language to talk about public ownership, one that detoxifies it and taps into the wide recognition that natural resources and essential public services should not be treated as commodities’
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jul/04/public-ownership-common-good-privatisation?CMP=twt_gu
The public services industrial complex was represented in force at today's 2014 Public Sector Show - a trade fair sponsored by US military contractor, Lockheed Martin. Tory ministers and senior civil servants hawked public sector contracts to over 2,500 visitors in a show featuring more than 70 speakers in a seminar programme across seven theatres and over 100 exhibitors. Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude gave the closing keynote speech ‘Open for Business – Next Steps in Shaping a Public Sector Fit for the Future’ including 'how government is opening up to SMEs and understanding what smaller, more innovative firms can offer' and 'the opportunities presented by innovative service models such as Public Sector Mutuals':
http://www.publicsectorshow.co.uk/
The World Development Movement is raising the alarm that a new wave of corporate trade deals threaten to increase global inequality, undermine democracy and hand public service provision to multinational companies.
Email your MP today and seek support for full transparency on the TTIP negotiations - to protect democracy, public services and the environment by opposing this aggressive new trade deal.
I dropped my car off for a service this morning around the corner from the Downing Street Men’s hostel - an ironic name where many of Manchester’s homeless alcoholics gather for a bed, warm food and sign posting to agencies. It was 8.30AM and they were standing in weak sunshine cracking open their first can of beer. It made me smile because the car radio was just reporting on the Guardian letter from a range of think tank signatories offering their views on Ed Miliband and what he needs to concentrate on to win the next election. The upshot of the debate was less centralised public services and more devolution.
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/mar/23/ed-miliband-labour-manifesto-thinktanks
"When people talk about cuts to public services they forget that people depend on them. They’re just told about the cost, and that it’s more money for the state - as if the state was some great monster that does things to you. When in reality it’s the public services workers who look after you, and who are paid for by the community" said the late Tony Benn in an interview with UNISON activist magazine Infocus back in 2010 soon after the formation of the Coalition Government. The full interview can be read here:
http://www.unison.org.uk/still-battling-for-a-fair-society
'The election in 2015 will be an important juncture for our public services – the course pursued after this point will determine whether they can play an effective role in the future in overturning the social determination of poor life chances. The twin pressures of rising demand and shrinking resources are forcing a choice. Either to continue, as this government has largely pursued, the course of salami-slicing Whitehall budgets, squeezing separate services and tinkering around the edges of traditional modes of delivery. This will lead to the decline, retrenchment and residualisation of public services with ever-higher thresholds for use and the termination of some altogether', writes Manchester Labour leader Sir Richard Leese in a New Statesman article arguing for greater localism to tackle regional inequality:
http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2014/03/labour-must-challenge-myths-about-decentralisation
‘Unpaid overtime is more common in the public sector, with more than one in four public servants doing unpaid overtime compared to around one in six of workers in the private sector. More than a quarter (27.4 per cent) of public sector staff did unpaid overtime of at least an hour a week in 2013, up from 24.8 per cent in 2003. The average amount of unpaid overtime done by these staff is 7 hours 42 minutes a week’ according to a new analysis of official figures published by the TUC:
http://www.tuc.org.uk/workplace-issues/work-life-balance/women-workers-public-sector-drive-increase-unpaid-overtime
A new report by the Institute of Fiscal Studies confirms that the biggest cull of public sector jobs for at least 50 years will see vulnerable parts of the country suffering staff reductions of up to 40%. The study confirms that the reductions are already hitting hardest those parts of Britain with the weakest economic activity and greatest levels of poverty:
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/feb/14/public-sector-jobs-cuts-britain?CMP=twt_gu
The former Government ‘Nudge Unit’ has been privatised into a joint venture with a small Government stake being retained and the remaining two thirds of the organisation going to employees and to NESTA. Ironic then that this ‘behaviour change’ unit is not changing its behaviour one iota from the vested interests in other privatised services with Maude refusing to disclose what, if any, payment the Government received for what is clearly a commercial sale of a former public service. Once services are floated off into these pseudo ‘mutuals’ they have a commercial value and taxpayers have an absolute right to hold Government to account on what these deals mean for the public purse.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-26030205
UCU, the University and College Union, has produced an important briefing on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) - a proposed free trade deal between the EU and the US. UCU warns that the TTIP not only poses a 'profound threat to public services in general' by exposing the still mainly public health care and higher education sectors to greater privatisation but will make it harder for any future (non neo-liberal) government to regulate foreign private sector companies operating in public services:
http://www.ucu.org.uk/media/pdf/6/n/ucu_translantictradebriefing_jan14.pdf
Many union activists are suffering from sympathy fatigue. Some journalists and academics make a liberal charity style case for public service workers that frankly is beginning to wear thin. Even David Cameron asked the Tory Party conference for a round of applause for `the great work done by our social workers.` It seems that perceptions of public sector workers in the media fall into two categories.
The BBC is today spinning a survey of 1031 people to mark the fifth anniversary of the £1.2 trillion bank bail out and is headlining that despite huge cuts in public spending there is increased satisfaction in the quality of services. Yet the findings of the survey itself don't bear that out. The BBC is silent on its own poll conclusions that 63% of survey respondents are worried about the cuts already made to public services and a majority (52%) are angry about the cuts.
‘Public service workers in the frontline communities, our first-responders, are there to provide support to migrants in distress. The tragic accident on the Mediterranean coast of Lampedusa, is just one of the many cases we face’ says Public Services International (PSI) of the appalling tragedy which cost over 300 lives. PSI has documented how public services accessed by migrants, such as health, language support, social services and integration programmes have the first to be cut under austerity, creating a desperate situation for migrants and dire working conditions for public service workers who assist them:
http://www.world-psi.org/en/tragedy-lampedusa-underscores-psi-migration-demands
A case in point is the despicable Con Dem Immigration Bill which will impose draconian restrictions on the access of UK immigrants to the NHS and other public services:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/immigration/10358569/End-of-free-NHS-care-for-migrants-under-new-bill.html
Stephen Wilks considers the implications of private sector companies now delivering one third of public services provision according to spend (£80bn). The Public Services Industry now accounts for 6% of GDP with 1.2 million staff - almost three times the number employed in the civil service - yet these corporations are not subject to the disciplines, probity and regulations applied to the public sector:
http://www.democraticaudit.com/?p=1248
