Tory Efficency Savings

It is getting very hard to take anything the Tories say on the economy seriously.


Their so called ‘efficiency guru’ Sir Peter Gershon has said that controls on public sector recruitment, which would include not filling empty posts, would save “perhaps £1bn to £2bn” in 2010-11. This is surely the worst sort of back of an envelope electioneering. Obviously no one has told this ‘guru’ that most public sector employers have been freezing posts for months. Although he could perhaps have opened a newspaper, or visited the job portals to see for himself.

Then we have the Tory business leaders telling us that jobs will be lost if the NI increase goes through. Well they certainly will in the public sector to pay for this latest Tory election pledge – around 40,000 to be precise. But in the private sector? Aren’t these the very same Tory business leaders who told us that the minimum wage would result in massive job losses.

Finally, we are told that David Cameron will "ask a fair pay review to consider how to introduce a pay multiple so that no public sector worker can earn over 20 times more than the lowest paid person in their organisation." A fine idea David, and you will be extending this principle to the private sector? In particular to those same Tory business leaders whose pay and pensions have been multiplying way above 20 times their lowest paid workers?

As UNISON General Secretary Dave Prentis said today: “It’s the same old Tories, same old story – the public should not be fooled. It is becoming clear that David Cameron’s so-called ‘efficiency savings’ mean misery for hundreds of thousands of people who rely on public services and for the people who deliver them.”

If you want to defend public services, come and join us in Kelvingrove Park, Glasgow tomorrow. Real people from real communities who rely on public services. No fat cat pay and pensions for them. See you there!