A Bill too far?
The coalition certainly has its hands full revising the Welfare State, the NHS and state pension entitlement, trade union freedoms and rights – and now the European Court.
Are we fixing the economy? Are we dismantling the Welfare State? Are we creating a free economy or are we simply lurching from one policy to another in the hope that somewhere along the line it will come right in the end?
The only consistent theme is that it constantly has to justify its actions from critics within the coalition; across the political spectrum; the Lords and, more recently, the general populace.
We cannot all be wrong and we cannot all misunderstand the policy – can we?
Apparently the economy is now £1 trillion in debt (and climbing); the economy is still shrinking and the unemployment rate across the country is rising, especially for the young.
And as we lurch towards further talks on pensions, we are further embroiled in arguments about the benefits system where there is the potential to affect a large number of our members’ income and standard of living.
If ever there was a time for some meaty motions to ADC, this has to be it!
Alongside this is the attack by Community Secretary Eric Pickles in the Cabinet to contest the rights of trade unionists in Local Government to receive paid time off and to elect a convenor. (This is a trade union post established with the agreement of the employer and who works full-time on trade union duties). He argues that paying trade unions to do their duties is potentially a waste of public money, but ignores the old adage ‘that the most effective communication tool for management is the trade union rep’.
What Pickles is espousing is a line of attack that he thinks will be supported by popular opinion rather than common sense. After all, we all know that the reason for the recession is the public service paying for union activity and not greed within the financial institutions!
The Prime Minister continues to trot out that we are ‘all in this together’ and that ‘we must all feel the pain’, but I see little evidence that the rich are suffering and even the latest proposals to require company boards to have a 75% majority before they can agree a Director’s or CEO’s pay increase is open to debate and very dubious, especially if there is no direct control over how the ‘majority’ is arrived at.
This brings us back to the central theme – is this conspiracy or cock-up? Certainly if you examine the number of times the coalition has to apologise or amend a policy, or keep MPs on its side, you begin to err on the latter and wonder when, if ever, we will see the green shoots of recovery.