I even had to personally evict five young people in the process of disguising themselves as Ninja from Museum property - interesting garb for a peaceful process.
Within work there were several PCS leaflets scattered around and I got to reading one of them and found I disagreed completely with it but as I hadn't got anything else to read I cracked on and jotted down some notes.
First off...The Government's plans are not working
I admit the results are not orgasmic however the latest figures show employment and apprenticeships are up and may keep rising. Inflation and interest are kept low and the world banks have still got confidence in Britain's economy and business. Times are tough but they aren't Spain of Greece TOUGH.
270,000 Public sector jobs axed in the last year.
In all honesty, and talking as a public sector worker whose future is far from secure and has been living under the shroud of redundancy for sometime, the public sector is bloated. The Labour years saw the bubble expand and expand at the same time as technology such as Internal Emails and greater automation would have replaced some traditional posts. CCTV and sensor alarms in museums mean that you no longer need to stand a person next to the Picasso painting for hours on end and save yourself the man power.
Too many place were running on "What we like" staffing levels rather than "What we need plus."
Now Government has asked its departments to streamline and save costs so that they continue to put money into other things like NHS, care groups, education etc... After all, as the Sun's headline read once; What is more important Hospitals or museums? Seriously ask yourself the same question, would you rather well paid nurses or two people stood guarding the same wing of the art gallery?
Other government departments with giant behemoth bureaucracies needed to thin their numbers and ask serious questions as to who was needed and who was surplus, the same as any business. The simple fact of the matter is that the Coalition inherited an economy that just simply could not longer support all of these jobs however much it may or may not have wanted to.
The Government, like a business had to do one of two things - cut its size down by streamlining and getting rid of sections that were wasteful or increasing its' income by taxation.
The PCS are, in my opinion barking up the wrong tree. Especially when the TUC got Ed Miliband to speak at the rally. It was he who stated that Labour wouldn't change the cuts if they got into power in 2015, the leader of the party whose dithering and lack of controls on the banks got us in this disaster in the first place, whose own shadow Chancellor stated he would be tough on public sector pay, both of whom were at the treasury as the good ship Economy sailed full speed into this Iceberg. Just reeks of hypocrisy.
Yes these are hard times, I know they are, I feel the tightness of the noose and I worry daily for my family and friends but this is the situation we find ourselves in - lest we forget.
I do agree that cuts need to be done with the deft of a surgeon and not a drunk headsman. Indeed the Liberal Democrats are doing this in Coalition, steadying the hands of the axe and getting the poorest out of income tax, Clegg has promised to safe guard housing benefits, Pupil premium, paid apprenticeships and pressing for a mansion tax on Britain's wealthiest to help pay for those who need it. We are listening and thinking of those in need and not politically grandstanding or point scoring.
