Hope I die before I get old?
- a) Robbie Williams
- b) Suffering from a terminal illness and hoping that euthanasia gets legalised in the UK?
- c) A teacher worried about your pension?
So the opening skirmish has been fought in the government versus the Public Sector battle. Thousands teachers out on strike and a day of protest. Respect to the teachers for organising a day of action on Wimbledon semi final day, so that they could watch TV, finish their end of term reports, and show solidarity with their more aggressive industrial comrades.
The preliminary tactics are clear. The government are going to frontload any negotiations with as much bad news as possible, leaked to the press before hand; it must be average life salary, not a final salary scheme, and there must be higher payments and a later starting pension date. The teaching unions are going to demonstrate they have the support to strike so they are not going to be a push over at the negotiation table.
The general public have little sympathy for strikes, hence the governments platitudes about the moral duty of teachers not to strike. It is a little doubtful if any child is going to suffer a catastrophic dip in their educational opportunities from one missed day; if that were the case, we would be jailing all those parents who are taking all those children out of school as you read this, to start their holidays earlier and more cheaply.
The teachers have responded with equal nonsense about the desperate effect on the child's education, or to use the modern parlance, 'their educational journey' of being taught by old decrepit teachers, presumably suffering from alzheimer's disease.
The teachers' unions know that the vast majority of their members have no stomach for a protracted industrial strike and would just about tolerate the odd day out. The government have to assess whether they can hold out long enough against this sort of guerilla tactics before the tipping point of public disquiet turns to outrage against the government for 'not doing something about it'.
So lovely to see Ed Milliband's opposition to the strikes. Presumably on the basis that not being his brother got him elected as leader of the Labour party and being his brother will keep him there.
So what is the answer? Presumably, not the 'big society', but the fair society. If Cameron et al, want to sell, to all sectors of the work force, the need to expect pay restraint and worsening conditions, then we have got to be all in this together. Those at the top end need to have their salary increases connected to the rest of their organisation and an end put to the bonus culture and the old boys' network that sits on the remuneration committees of major companies. By all means pay whopping salaries to those in highly challenging jobs, including MPs, but cut away all the share options, massive pension payouts, golden hellos and golden goodbyes.
Will it happen? Not a chance. The government knows that the punitive measures needed to bring this about would drive many businesses out of the country and cut government income. So it seems a fairer society would be a poorer society and in a democracy not enough people would vote for that. Anyone for a strike?