Day of Action: Shepton Mallet

By Ed_2010 | Wednesday, November 30, 2011, 17:30

Staff at Shepton Mallet Ambulance Station were among the 3 million people who today took action and demonstrated against changes which are planned that will affect their retirement age and pensions.

Left to right: Alie Helmore, Mark Lambert, Andy Ransom and Adrian Jones

Elsewhere in the town the impact of the 'day of action' varied. Parent's of Children at Whitstone and St Pauls who could not make other arrangements were forced to take a day off of their jobs, but apart from the at the Ambulance Station the visible protest were quite low key. 'Protesters' at Mendip District Council seemed to all go to lunch together and didn't return. While this is slightly amusing, it will do little for any anti-public sector feelings from those in the private sector who also have it tough, or those who have already lost their jobs.

Today was not about causing disruption for Ambulance Service staff though, emergency calls were still being answered and one 'protestor' had worked last night and will be returning to work this evening; today was about awareness of a grievance and offering information to passers by in order to gain public backing. Standing outside Shepton Mallet ambulance station for more than a minute it was impossible to overlook the beeping horns and waves of support.

Support for the 'day of action' has been varied from the private sector perspective, with accusations of 'gold plated' pensions and above average pay for public sector workers. The protest at the Ambulance station is a stark illustration that not all public sector jobs are alike, however. Before considering an average public sector salary, which has been variously quoted as being somewhere between £25k-£28k, and issues which have caused irreparable damage to private sector pensions, one must consider the scope of individuals who are to be affected by the changes.

A lunchtime assistant is on a relatively low wage, has had a pay freeze and is experiencing the same financial challenges as the rest of us, including rising costs across the board. The Ambulance team in Shepton spoke passionately about their work and the prospect of being expected to carry on until 68 in their incredibly challenging job, while being expected to contribute 50% more to their pension pots.

According to Unison the Treasury gets £2billion more in NHS pension contributions than it pays out per annum, and the average local government pension is £4000 "hardly gold plated". Strike action is, they say "the last resort", and while the Government claims that 'negotiations are still ongoing' it has made it clear that it's stance on pensions will not, and indeed cannot change.

In a situation that feels like it is leading to a Thatcher-Scargill type showdown, it seems unlikely that this is the last we will hear of this matter, and the BMA has not ruled out action "of some kind".

Were you affected by todays strike action, or do you have an opinion on this? Why not share?

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Comments

The problem in the 70's as it is now, is that things were then, and have been now, allowed to get out of control before action is taken to remedy the issues.

The Callaghan government in the 70's gave in to the unions every time they demanded more, until they found they could no longer afford to cave in, The IMF told them what to do, and their union paymasters then held the country to ransom. We had power cuts, the 3 day week, the dead not being buried, rubbish not being collected etc etc, Mrs T inherited that background and had to win the battle with the unions before the country could move forward. Yes many people were made unemployed, but what was the alternative, if the plan she instgated hadn't been followed through, we would still be the "sick man of europe now"

As for your list of things, I have no argument with some of them, however, abolishing District Councils probably won't save any money at alll, ask Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Cornwall who have all done it and then found it costs more than it saves. I don't know what councillors allowances you are referring to, at Mendip the basic allowance is £4000 and the special responsibilty allowance £3500, so thats £7500 a year, and I put in about 25 hours a week for that. The leader gets £10,000 for a job that is pretty much full time, at least 40 hours a week, hardly a kings ransom, and the problem with cutting allowancs is that you will make serving as a councillor only available to the retired or wealthy, everyone else won't be able to afford it.

If you want councillors who know their backside from their elbow there has to be a little recognition.

If you watched Nick Robinsons programme the last 2 weeks about how the government collects and spends taxation, you will have seen that there are less than 1% of the population who earn over £150,000pa, so even if you taxed them at 100% of their earnings it would only be a small drop in the overall ocean, as it is, higher rate tax payers (over £44,000pa) pay 46% of the total taxation, even though they make up about 10% of the population, while the low earners actually get more back from the state than they pay in tax.

I agree with you on the bin tax, going back to weekly collections is ridiculous, the system we have now is much better, but I fundamentaly disagree with you about free schools and Trident. Education in this country for the most part is a disgrace and needs to be revolutionised, free schools can do just that, it is riduculous that so many people leave school, barely literate and numerate, and completely un-prepared to do a days work.
I certainly would never give up our nuclear deterrent unless it was part of a multi-lateral agreement with every country on the planet, and with the current state of affairs that is hardly likely!

By johnp2010 at 22:32 on 02/12/11
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When Mrs T was elected I was in commercial banking in the West Midlands. The effect there, over four years, was devastating. And, it was the small businesses that suffered first. And we had Tebbit saying "get on your bike for work because my father did". Yes, he did and his autobiography shows that fathere rode his bike almost two miles for work. Not quite a rural lad was our Norman!

Something needed to be done then as it does now. How about

1. No local government manager/executive/civil servant/health executive to be paid more than the Prime Minister.
2. Abolish district councils - the savings in executive pay could exceed £5m. p.a. in Somerset alone.
3. Abolish responsibility allowances for councillors.
4. Restrict allowances to be no more than 20% above national average income.
5. Disqualify from government contracts all companies that arrange their tax affairs to the detriment of UK plc.
6. Disqualify from public office all individuals who arrange their tax affairs to the detriment of UK plc
7. Fully examine 'savings' before making them. For example, the savings on aircraft carriers are now reported to be costing an extra £600m because the savings are 'deferred costs' and we still end up with more carrier capacity than aeroplanes.
8. Revisit the free schools programme which will cost £600m to create capacity that is not needed. Better to spend the money on improving what is already in place.
9. Scrap the weekly bin collection bribe - offered by Pickles and rejected by many councils of all colours.
10. Revisit Trident. Why do we need it because if the button is ever pressed we will be dead anyway.
11. Look at tax bands and higher paid (say Prime Minister x 3 as the salary benchmark for a highest rate tax band; Prime Minister x 2 for higher; Prime Minister for standard; Prime Minister halved for lower and Prime Minister quartered for lowest. Sufficient there for incentive and sufficient there to discourage excessive greed.

That short list will produce billions of pounds (how can Barclays only pay £4m in tax on their most recent profit). It may also show those who are highly paid in the public sector that life in the private/third sectors is less good than they enjoy (they will apply for similar paid jobs that are not there). The lower paid will be protected.

There are number of people who are not in this as much as the rest of us. I find that odd.

Please note that I have not mentioned beer. A pint of Butcombe beckons on Sunday evening.

By AndrewRain at 16:02 on 02/12/11
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What you are forgetting is just how bad things were before privatisation.

If you wanted a phone fitted you had to wait about 6 weeks, now you can get it done within a week, British Leyland produced rubbish that no-body wanted to buy, British Steel produced steel that for the most part was no good for our industry, and it used three times as much labour as it needed to.

I went on a trip around Llanwern steel works during the 70's and they were at least 300% overmanned due to Union demarcation rules, our industry was on its knees thanks to militant unions and unsustainable working practices, and it had to change.

Margaret Thatcher had the courage to take on the unions and force the change that was needed, just about every other country in the advanced world has had to follow her lead.

We are still the 7th biggest manufacturing nation in the world behind the USA, China, Russia, Germany, India, and France, not bad for a little speck on the map, and instead of producing second rate rubbish that nobody wanted, we now produce value added quality products that sell to the world.

None of this would have happened if it wasn't for the Thatcher government, and change like that can't come about without pain, and the pain was 3 million unemployed for a while.

We have a similar revolution needed now, the public sector got far too fat under 13 years of Labour and the balance has got to be changed, we need more people working in the productive part of the economy and less in the unproductive, again this will cause pain and unemployment, it doesn't mean its the wrong thing to do.

By johnp2010 at 19:43 on 01/12/11
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As Andrew said Thatcher privatised everything (apart from the railways) in order to raise cash (including council houses). But this was short-sighted (as most politicians are as they rarely think beyond their current term). She decimated our industries and unemployment rocketed. It was a nation of haves and have nots, and the poll tax was one of the least popular policies ever. There's little difference to what happened then to what is happening now, although admittedly the Labour Party are pretty clueless too!

Thatcher was a strong character I agree, and if, as JohnP stated we need a similar strong character now I think we are well and truly stuffed with Cameron at the helm.

By Cydertron at 10:58 on 01/12/11
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Mrs Thatcher attacked the wrong targets (and I am not talking about The Belgrano) when she was first in power. She destroyed a significant chunk of manufacturing capacity (what Dave wants back now) and refused to follow the Heath model and the Hestletine revised (and much more robust) model of partial intervention. She only 'balanced the books' by privatising all sorts of things (described by that prime socialsit Harold McMillan as "selling the family silver". Like the present Chancellor she failed to get the best possible price and those with money made a fortune (and a Tory MP used four different names to obtain BT shares because they were so cheap).

If she had addressed public sector issues in 1979 - 1983 we would not be where we are today. If she had deregulated banks properly (we are still using her rules) we would not be where we are today.

Not all that she did was bad but the list is not balanced.

By AndrewRain at 10:02 on 01/12/11
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