Join us today!
Printable version
Link to this page: https://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/913/23426
From The Socialist newspaper, 24 August 2016
£500m on civil service redundancies in two years
PCS strike on budget day, 20 March 2013 , photo Paul Mattsson (Click to enlarge)
A civil service worker
Whitehall spent more than half a billion pounds on redundancy payments in two years, according to its own major departments' figures, recently published by the Telegraph.
The Tory paper is very specific in its outrage over who gets large government payouts. Its owners have been parasites on public funds for generations.
They raise a good point though. How many nurses, doctors, teachers or firefighters could be funded with the money spent on firing civil servants desperately required to carry out the basic functions of the state?
Just three people, a bunch of Whitehall apparatchiks Cameron called his 'advisors', received £1.3 million - before transferring straight to another department after his resignation. Meanwhile, around 90,000 workers have been laid off since 2010, with proposals for another 100,000 despite increasing workloads.
We demand an end to the contempt of the 1% for our public servants. Reverse all public service cuts and sell-offs.
When the ruling class agitates for an end to government profligacy, it means sacking workers without proper redundancy payments. In fact, bosses are already developing policy proposals to cut redundancy payments, despite having stated the budget is balanced following the pensions dispute of 2011.
When the government cuts funds from our public services, it's because we need to "pay down the deficit" or because "the last Labour government overspent". They dream of creating an emptied-out 'night-watchman state' that can only really exist in the fantasies of free marketeers like George Osborne and Sajid Javid.
In reality, public sector cuts are made to fund the next payout or tax cut for the super-rich. When the establishment righteously declares we need to be 'doing more for less', what it really means is that bosses should be getting more for less.
Donate to the Socialist Party
Finance appeal
The coronavirus crisis has laid bare the class character of society in numerous ways. It is making clear to many that it is the working class that keeps society running, not the CEOs of major corporations.
The results of austerity have been graphically demonstrated as public services strain to cope with the crisis.
The government has now ripped up its 'austerity' mantra and turned to policies that not long ago were denounced as socialist. But after the corona crisis, it will try to make the working class pay for it, by trying to claw back what has been given.
- The Socialist Party's material is more vital than ever, so we can continue to report from workers who are fighting for better health and safety measures, against layoffs, for adequate staffing levels, etc.
- When the health crisis subsides, we must be ready for the stormy events ahead and the need to arm workers' movements with a socialist programme - one which puts the health and needs of humanity before the profits of a few.
Inevitably, during the crisis we have not been able to sell the Socialist and raise funds in the ways we normally would.
We therefore urgently appeal to all our viewers to donate to our Fighting Fund.
In The Socialist 24 August 2016:
#KeepCorbyn
#KeepCorbyn: Answer right's attacks with firm socialist programme
Corbyn union nominations round-up and view from the workplace
#KeepCorbyn: huge support at rallies and among Labour rank and file
Socialist Party news and analysis
Black footballer's taser death: stop police racism now
Pay still below pre-crisis levels
Train fares to rise again - nationalise railways now!
£500m on civil service redundancies in two years
International socialist news and analysis
Trump in trouble - political polarisation deepens
Socialist readers' comments
Readers respond to Trotskyist red scare smears by capitalist media
Would you call G4S for help over discrimination?
Workplace news and analysis
Deliveroo strike action forces bosses to back down
Junior doctors set for further strike action
A day in the life of a call centre worker
Save our NHS
The threat of private health insurance
Organise against secretive NHS cuts plans
Socialist Party reports and campaigns
Greenwich council tenants: We won't pay! We won't move!
Local estate agents back Butterfields tenants
Nottinghamshire Pride makes history
Immingham residents' housing battle
Home | The Socialist 24 August 2016 | Join the Socialist Party
Subscribe | Donate | Audio | PDF | ebook
2020