I have a feeling the next few days of blogs are going to be on the same theme, so I have pre-empted this by calling today’s blog ‘pt 1’, which also allows me to be far less imaginative on the title front. But let’s skip past my creative laziness and move to the hard stuff. No, I’m not asking you down liquor in order to cope with my blog, though each to their own. I want to write about the public sector strikes that are taking place on Wednesday.
I watched This Morning this morning, as this is something I sometimes do. I am a fan of the silver fox that is Schofield and the lovely looking Holly Willoughby and sometimes find their banal chat in the AM is enough to make me realise there are far more interesting things in the world and I should probably get up and do them. However, this morning on This Morning (I will refrain from using that sentence ever again in my life, promise) they were reviewing the papers and they were joined by some idiot and a bigger idiot in a leopard skin dress. This bigger idiot who apparently used to be editor of some tabloid, was harping on about why they public sector shouldn’t go on strike on Wednesday. ‘Everyone’s been hit by this crisis’ she said, stating that everyone should contribute towards the debt. She said that while yes the bankers did mess up, it’s now affecting the whole UK and there are people out there who don’t have jobs and can’t afford to live, so those that are working shouldn’t skimp on their responsibility. She said all this in a probably expensive and sick making leopard skin dress, expensive shoes and the knowledge that the UK’s debt is probably not affecting her all. Phillip and Holly both agreed with her which made me rather sad, before all three of them (the fourth was struggling to understand what they were talking about) pointed out only 31% or some made up figure, actually want to strike and how their actions will cause chaos for the public which is unfair. I turned the TV off before I threw something at it and vowed not to watch This Morning again until I cave in when Holly’s wearing an even more low cut dress (I won’t apologise for this behaviour, I’m not ashamed).
Now just a few hours ago, ventriloquist’s dummy faced Michael Gove is urging teachers not to strike, saying that union leaders are ‘itching for a fight’ and being militant. Francis Maude has threatened that there won’t be any negotiation at all if they strike and there are talks of changes the laws so that striking can’t actually happen in this way again. It feels more and more like this country is under a dictatorship rather than a democracy everyday. Yes, this strike will affect people’s days. God knows, some people’s journeys to work may be completely screwed up, some people in hospitals may have their minor operations put off and some kids won’t be able to go to school on a Wednesday which I’m sure they are all crying about, which in turn would mean some parents have to take the day off work to look after them. Is this a bad thing if there is disruption for one day? No. Of course not. That is what a strike is all about. What impact would a strike have if everything just carried on as normal? By going on strike, the public sector is making a stand against the terrible pension proposals that won’t be ‘affecting everyone’ like that twat on TM said. They will just be affecting those in some of the most important jobs in the country. Those people who spend their days saving lives and educating people. Those people who will work hard everyday for a less than great salary, only to find that now, under the Tories, they will have to do that for even longer, just to have an even worse quality of life when they retire.
How is that fair? How is it fair that those people work so hard for so little when big business men who may have to get two buses instead of one train on Wednesday – oh woe is fucking me – get paid six times the amount for corporate greed and live their retirement in luxury. We all have to pay back this debt together do we? Then why do so many fat cats avoid taxpaying? Why do so many big businesses keep their money offshore and the banks thrive with more and more government funding while others living standards drop? There is an overwhelming amount of support for this Wednesday’s strike, no matter what the news or government want you to think, with most polls showing that it’ll be way more than 31% on the picket lines on the day.
And for anyone who does think it’s selfish, then bear in mind that all the unions have tried to avert this with the government insisting on giving them worse and worse offers. Neither Danny Alexander or Francis Maude have a clue about the lives of public sector workers, nor do they care, with these threats of withdrawing any deals whatsoever being desperate childish methods. The same goes for the government’s threat of changing the law for strike action overall, a threat that if followed through would be a violation of human rights. People in this country have a very sacred right to complain and take action when their livelihoods are threatened and to remove that puts us in a place where the government cannot be criticised for their actions. You’ve seen what they’ve already done with the public’s disdain so imagine the consequences of a silenced nation. I don’t think it will come to that. I think that the Gove and the others are pleading for the strike not to happen because they are terrified. They know full well that when it’s proven that the people have power too, it may just catch on, and they might be in an awful lot of trouble from now on.
If you do work in the public sector, and heck, even if you don’t, go along to the march and rally on Wednesday, starting at 1pm at Lincoln’s Inn Fields in London with many other more local marches around the country. I’m going and I work for me, not the public, despite what us comedians pretend. This is really important so please don’t scurry under the comments of the media, and realise that something needs to happen and this is another step towards a very necessary change.
Tomorrow, boys and girls, I’ll write about why strike action has been important through history.
