by Adam McCulloch
On Question Time last night (Thursday 26 June) a social worker in the audience attacked the government over local government pay, lambasting ministers' failure to tax the rich more. But I couldn't help thinking that this is the worst possible time for public sector unrest - global prices going sky high, Gordon Brown being subject to criticism and abuse whatever he says or does, and a reinvigorated Tory party on the march.
Surely social workers and other local government staff don't really think their pay would improve significantly under the Conservatives? A successful and damaging strike would do further, possibly terminal damage to this Labour administration, who, warts and all, still offer the best hope for those who believe in the role and status of public sector workers.
Perhaps the unions feel that they have more leverage with Labour so if pay is to improve overall then they might as well get tough now; a Conservative administration may prove rather less accommodating.
The Tories could hardly do worse on public sector pay than Labour since 1997. Labour is in steep decline due to the disaffection of millions of traditional LP supporters, fed up with low pay among other things. If Brown loses the election it is nobody's fault but his. The most frightening thing is that realising the likely defeat (wipe out in fact) is coming the Blairites like Purnell, Hutton et al are proposing a scorched earth policy for the next two years and aim to privatise as much as they can of what is left of pubic service provision.
Hello Adam.
I am that errant social worker in the Bexhill Question Time audience...
I might have been a Labour Party supporter at one point, but I could never quite trust what turned out to be the arch-deception of the Blair Project.
The sad truth is that there is little to choose between Labour and Conservative Party policy on so many issues these days.
The social work role should be political (small p). And what is important to me personally is to be a member of the political party which comes closest to expressing my social work values.
So let me ask you a question: if you were a proper social worker, wouldn't you be a Liberal Democrat too?!
Good question Nick, and great to hear from the man himself! There is an argument that there has never been a better time than now for the LibDems to offer people an alternative to what is perceived as a stagnating Labour government and an opportunistic Conservative party hiding its true colours behind an apparently inclusive new leader.
But I think that there is a tendency for some to project on to the LibDems the values and hopes that are felt to have been rejected by New Labour. In government what scope would they have to boost local government pay, and at what economic and political price?
I think Vince Cable is giving the lie to the old old jibe about Lib Dem sums. The Lib Dems have been the ones taking the fight to Labour about the 10p Tax Band, the consumer debt and housing prices bubble, and greener, fairer taxes. It is self-deception for New Labour apologists to say that an affinity for liberal democracy is projection. It is about policy, devolution and empowerment - things that social workers are (or should be) steeped in!