The news from Cuba, a socialist country, is bleak. A much smaller population than the UK’s has to shed 500,000 jobs in a hurry, because they have run out of money. Cuba is one of those places where state planning and a proportionately much larger public sector has kept the country poor. Now there is a day of reckoning.
If UK Trade Unionists are alarmed by forecast public sector job losses they should show their solidarity with Cuba, which has a real problem to complain about. Yesterday some UK Trade Union leaders condemned UK cuts that have not been decided, let alone announced. They studiously avoided debating how the modest cash rises each year in current public spending could be used to offer good public services, without cutting anything that matters. Partnership and productivity would be two good words to bring management and workforce around the public sector table.
September 14, 2010
Old Holborn says:
In the tradition of so many of Labours so called "fake charities" (whereby taxpayer money is simply handed to unelected third parties) (highlights a possible fake charity and someone doing well from it-ed).
September 14, 2010
Well spotted – the media is hardly making anything of this. Perhaps the dinosaurs in the TUC. the Labour Party, the BBC and the Police Superintendents' Association would care to reflect on the reality in a socialist state.
September 14, 2010
Regretably the TUC, Labour Party, BB, etc only seem interested in the pork-barrel politics of the UK public sector, i.e. how much of the pot can I carve out for my special interest group and sod the rest of you. It is just so predictable the self-interested whining we have already heard from the public sector – its time they faced reality, the country has been living beyond its means.
September 14, 2010
As folk who believe in the power of a succinct motto or a relevant analogy we commended ‘Doing more for less’ yesterday.
Today we appreciate ‘Partnership & Productivity’.
They both say what they mean.
It’s no good beating the unions about the head with the need for cuts or a balanced budget. As your recent blogs imply the workforce – union leaders and all – must be asked to participate in solving the problem of under-achievement.
This not only puts them on the spot but a workforce generally has a greater insight into procedures and practices than outside consultants and distant politicians.
We may be biased but we bet the workers’ wives would make ideal participants for research on the subject and would produce ideal material to quote back to the macho intransigents!
September 14, 2010
Your points John are rather one sided; Cuba is a poor country, perhaps in part due to communism but, mainly due to the fact that the USA have blockaded the economic growth of the country.
I visited Cuba twice on cruises, during the thirty years I worked prior to becoming a disabled benefit scrounger/scum bag. Yes I gave up two cruise holidays a year, a good, well paid rewarding job and a nice car, just so that I could have the £91 a week incapacity benefit.
One thing I noticed about Cuba was how obviously starved of cash it was but, one doctor to every two hundred and fifty citizens is a level of healthcare we can only dream of, not to mention free sports clubs and facilities for all.
I used my Visa card in Cuba; something else I willingly gave up for my state handout, however, because my card was through an American bank, the credit card company did not pay the shopkeeper the money. Now that is what is killing Cuba's economy.
September 14, 2010
Reading the article in the Guardian it looks as though some the public sector jobs are becoming private sector jobs. There are various other economic reforms mentioned.
Getting rid of much state control and so forth will help them up to a point. Then the weakness of the banking system will eventually hinder them. (Export opportunity for our comradely part nationalised banks?)
It will be interesting to see and note Cuba's economic growth rate in the next couple of years.
September 16, 2010
More missing posts here too?