Thursday 10 March 2011

Public Sector Pension's reform likely to trigger unrest

The Hutton Report has announced that public sector pensions will be reformed, which means that most workers in the public sector will get less and will have to work longer. The new system will involve scrapping the final salary scheme in which pension is determined by final grade and insted pensions will be determined by average pay throughout career. As for the retirement age, it will be brought into line with the national retirement age of 65 from its previous age of 60 for public sector workers. This is yet another blow for the public sector to add to the pay freeze, which with inflation predicted to be 4% will see a significant fall in real income (in fact employees in the public sector will be 4% worse off).
Taking away pension rights, freezing pay, sacking workers and putting remaining staff under pressure is a sure way to stir up wide spread union action. Civil service unions have becoming increasingly more daring in recent years, increasing strikes and its rumoured they are mobilising for mass protest. Add to the civil service unions to the battle cries of the aggrieved teaching unions, the already striking lecturers, furious students and the police federation has made its stance as very much against the Government. You have to wonder who isn't against the Government.
Walking around Preston Town Centre I was surprised to see members of the Socialist Worker Party asking for signature against cuts, I was even more surprised to see the number of signatures they had as people showed a keen interest in their march on London. The graph from Youpoll shown bellow shows the decline in popularity of the Lib Dem and Conservative party since forming Government.

The popularity of the Government is falling and Unions are mobilizing, times are going to be very tough for the Government. As long as they maintain their plan of contractive fiscal policy through cut backs whist leaving the super rich and culprit banks untouched, people are going to questions what Government they elected.

Libya

Since the protests in Tunisia sparked up the events middle east I have watched very closely. Tunisia and Egypt saw their undesirable leaders fall but it is Libya where the greatest struggle is. Not in my life time have I seen anything I would consider to show as many examples of bravery, courage, determination and passion as in Libya. Its very all too easy to place the label of good and bad onto each side in Libya, Col Gaddafi seems to be epitome of villainy.
Gaddafi's regime was the classic dictator model of Police State, State TV and keep your subjects in horror and awe. The fact is that those on the streets of Tripoli supporting Gaddafi actually appear to believe that he is saving them from Western Colonists that are funding an al qaeda rebellion to take their oil! While that is not evil its just staggering ignorance, it does mean that Gaddafi's supporters don't really have a grasp on the situation and thus surely it is the rebels liberating them not Gaddafi. We should consider though that from their perspective Gaddafi did drive out their King and considering the controversy surrounding Iraq and general behaviour of oil companies it becomes more plausible that with state media that these people could believe Gaddafi's nutty account of events. Gaddafi feeds his supporters tales of mighty victories against the rebels which so far have mostly lies!
Gaddafi told 'his people' that he had taken the oil town of Ras Lanuf when in fact it was still under rebel control and declared Zawiya liberated when it had been levelled to the ground it reports suggest rebels still remain. In fact when the BBC attempted to visit Zawiya 3 reporters were beaten up to the point of death and thrown on a flight home...
Gaddafi's forces are killing civilians, beating up news crews, they have superior fire power and most of them are violent gangs or mercenaries. The rebels have some basic weapons, a few stolen tanks, toyota pick up trucks but more importantly resolve! Holding Ras Lanuf and Zuara against the odds day after day is a miracle yet I fear it may not last. Zuara and Ras Lanuf are under huge pressure now from land and air, there is only one clear solution... intervention.
To intervene or not to intervene, is a question that up until Gaddafi started bombing his own people was hard to answer, it is now a question with a more obvious answer; no fly zone. We have frozen Gaddafi's assets and demanded his resignation to response, so we should now impose a no fly zone. Of course there are problems with this, such as having to bomb Gaddafi's air felids and it is claimed that it could alienate some rebels and Eastern leaders, these seem to be fading. The rebel government in Benghazi appears to be asking for it, Saudi Arabia and the Islamic council approve, France and the UK are pushing for it and the USA is hinting so why have we not imposed it! A no fly zone would simply rob Gaddafi of his unfair advantage, its not sending in troops.
It seems to me to be out-ragious that we sitting just off the Libyan coast with the power to stop Gaddafi yet we do nothing, Gaddafi is murdering his own people with arms we sold him and hired troops with money we helped him accumulate. If we don't move quickly the rebels could loose and I would never forgive the British Government for that, we're willing to take money from the expoliations of the Libyan people but then not give a damn when they are fighting for the very principles we are supposed to be promoting. On another not, its interesting how quick we run to America when they propose military intervention but when we bring an idea to the table that doesn't involve sending in troops to conquer a country they won't commit.