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We do rather think that the unions are walking into a trap – the Tory’s are just waiting to pounce with new, and Wilt believes welcome, new legislation to curtail the unions – Milliband, Balls, Tony Blair and others have warned them. See article here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/8599446/Michael-Gove-warns-teachers-against-militancy-ahead-of-planned-strike.html

Gove, as Mrs Wilt cares to refer to him as ‘looking like a schoolboy’, aint no idiot, nor are Milliband, Blair or Balls. Neither are the public who, like Wilt, are pissed off big time over the excessive benefits afforded public sector workers.

Bring it on unions! You aint seen nothing yet, believe me.

Wilt

Wilt Portfolio

Ed ‘Damien’ Balls is at it again – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-13826271 We think this is called distraction politics – distraction that is from other stories about him.

What Balls and most commentators fail to mention was that it was not the red haired Scotsman that pre-empted further discussions with the unions but in fact the unions who decided on a whim to call a strike – and why? Now Wilt is not a huge fan of Nick Robinson of the BBC (Guido derides him all the time) but he does have connections and can give not unreasoned analysis or comment as here:   http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-13809285

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Me thinks union members need to be a little more cautious about being taken in by the rhetoric of their highly paid leaders. What may lay behind some government thinking is the aim to curb union powers and enforce a new law whereby no strike can take place without more than 40% of union members approve it. Presently the threshold is based on the numbers that vote.

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Meanwhile enjoy this: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/matt/

Wilt

Wilt Portfolio

What is the problem with these changes to public sector pensions? The BBC article here http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-13800573 is informative.  For example:

‘All pension benefits that were earned before any reforms are introduced – including retirement ages and final salary benefits – will be protected, the government insists.’

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However all current members of the various schemes will need to make increased contributions from a certain date. All that seems fine to Wilt, albeit it is in addition to public sector pay freezes and in some cases, as Salopian points out http://regulatorwatch.co.uk/2011/06/a-shropshire-lad/ , actual pay cuts. A message from Salopian to Wilt confirms that the pay cut and reduction in service conditions have now been approved by Shropshire County Council and will take effect from later this month, with or without the consent of the workforce. If necessary, that local authority will sack everyone and then re-employ them on new contracts – or of course individual workers can decline their new contract.

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Wilt can only dream that his local council would be prepared to do the same.

Times are hard – even for Wilt. Wilt however does have in addition his overseas contracts and he can fall back on those assets which he squirreled away for a rainy day – it is a shame that Brown, Balls and Milliband had not done so too rather than plough ‘funny money’ into the public sector.

Somehow Wilt finds it hard to believe that ‘Nokia’ Brown will not be becoming the next IMF representative.

What a shame.

Wilt Potfolio

Wilt

Wilt Portfolio

Oh boy – will these people never learn? Going on strike never works these days. Public sector finance and the overall UK budget are in a complete mess and we have public sector workers, teachers et al going out on strike to achieve what exactly?

The response of these public sector workers http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-13772326 will have no effect – really. Take it from Wilt the public sector pensions and service conditions are beyond the dreams of those in the private sector. And who funds the public sector? The private sector of course, unless someone can tell Wilt otherwise.

This goes beyond social work concerns – perhaps social care is a special case (Wilt admits it is) but something has to give. Wilt for one is fed up of hearing teachers who work only half a year complaining and of civil servants and local government officers thinking that the public will have sympathy with them – they won’t believe me.

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What will be achieved will be a massive saving in salaries on those days they go on strike – I suppose every cloud has a silver lining.

The crisis in social care, in the public sector at least, is far less to do with economics and far more to do with the simple fact that it is a difficult profession to work within and hindered by a hostile public and, particularly, media environment. Yes we can blame the press and a few twats of the likes of Calleja and Plaskitt to a certain extent, but in reality the profession needs to sort out its own image.

Bringing local authority pensions, salaries and conditions of service into line with the private sector will not impact upon social care recruitment or retention (in the long term) in social care. Those who ‘can’, just get on with it, those who ‘cannot’ just wait out their days claiming sick leave for recurrent six month stints on full pay.

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Do social workers need more sick leave? Well, if they do then solve the core issue and do not pass on the bill to Wilt who does not enjoy the opportunity to take sick leave, on full pay for six months – if he goes sick there is no money. No paid holidays either or his salary if he needs to do, for example, jury service. Least of all will his private pension be gold plated and when on holiday do you think he can claim off the taxpayer his equivalent earnings?

There is statutory sick pay and statutory minimum holidays – that is excellent but Wilt cannot understand why someone in local/central government service have far superior conditions of service to those in the private sector? No longer can it be argued that public sector workers are lower paid because that is a simple untruth. In fact, if anything, the opposite is true.

The prospective summer-autumn-winter of discontent will be, well, a mild irritation, we suspect. Civil servants and local authority staff do not hold the same kind of power that the miners had in the years prior to the Thatcher era – think on Brethren and Sisters before inviting even more stringent legislation to govern ‘industrial’ and trade union ‘powers.’ Scargill (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Scargill) failed – take note.

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Wilt

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Oh dear – Ed Balls is having a hard time. He of the surname reflecting something spherical and in the plural has been found out: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-13736406

It could not happen to a nicer bloke – he remains looking like an evil bastard, something akin to Damien out of that film The Omen: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Omen

Obviously someone within the Labour ranks have it in for him – no doubt Blairites.

Obviously Mr Brown (Gordon ‘Nokia’) did not come out looking too good either. Boy did Wilt have a jolly good chuckle. It however gets worse.

Meanwhile the two Milliband’s and the Labour party overall are not having a good time: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-13741517 The internal feuds’ within Labour and a piss poor leadership from Ed is making them a laughing stock. Ed Milliband needs to keep a careful eye on his right wing brother David seeking to dominate the game while his (so called) team mate Ed ‘Ferkin’ Balls has been effectively put ‘offside’ in his over ambitious efforts to catch the eye of the supporters at the football venue. It sounds like a yellow card for Balls whilst the other Milliband (David) has decided to take a ‘wait and see’ position on the field.

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Meanwhile the conservatives, playing mostly right and centre are in the possession of the ball (and got Balls by the balls) and are falteringly driving down the pitch to the Labour party goalposts – regrettably their left wing Lib Dems are either not playing ball or have forgotten whether they are playing up field or downfield, or indeed what field. They appear more concerned with whether the team Trainer and Medics have the correct focus.

Team captain Ed in the mean time seems to have lost the plot, and his goalie, and is having to look left and right to ensure that the team are on form, supportive of his tactics (sic) but as a consequence has lost sight of the ball. Of course Ed never really got the full backing of the team support club; indeed the majority would really have preferred to have had David as team captain.

Ah well, all that captain Dave (Cameron) needs to do now is to sort out the Lib Dem aspect of the team – then we will see some real football.

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Not that Wilt even likes football.

Wilt

Wilt Portfolio

And another success: http://www.communitycare.co.uk/Articles/2011/06/10/116976/baby-p-social-worker-to-receive-damages-from-the-sun.htm

See also here: http://www.communitycare.co.uk/Articles/2011/06/09/116977/baby-p-verdict-a-victory-for-social-workers.htm

It was Deidre Sanders of The Sun who was in 2009 identified as a keynote speaker for the GSCC 2009 Conference which was received with disbelief and anger by both the social care press and social care workers. In fact a petition was signed by Wilt and several hundred others objecting to Sanders being given a voice by the GSCC.

See here: http://www.communitycare.co.uk/Articles/2009/10/15/112878/deidre-sanders-tells-gscc-conference-tide-has-turned.htm

And here: http://www.communitycare.co.uk/Articles/2009/09/30/112712/anti-deidre-sanders-petition-gets-over-350-signatures.htm

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The fact that The Sun is now to pay substantial damages to a social worker falsely accused by the newspaper of being implicated in the death of Baby Peter not only implicates The Sun but also the GSCC who were so insensitive to the views of the social care sector.

So GSCC, another nail in your coffin – you are a disgrace. Tabloid journalism is one thing, but tabloid regulation falls well short of what was intended and is unacceptable.

Shoesmith is only the beginning – like Arthurworry (Climbe) before her, there are a few other social workers lining up to challenge their treatment by the quadruplet congenial self-preservation society of Haringey, Ed Balls, Ofsted and the GSCC.

This is also a blow to the likes of Calleja who we know has tried to cash-in on the Baby P disaster by claiming she also was failed by social workers i.e. her convivial meeting with Mary ‘Contrary’ Wakefield which led to the Spectator article, see here: http://www.spectator.co.uk/essays/all/3061606/after-baby-p-the-crisis-in-child-foster-care.thtml#comments

Wilt Portfolio

More like a Jackanory story.

Wilt

Wilt Portfolio

Guido and Wilt are at one on this issue: http://order-order.com/2011/06/06/the-war-on-pilgrims-goes-international/ as are the vast majority of sensible thinking people – which obviously excludes those full-time paid union officials at public expense.

Now if the unions want full time officials then we suggest that they pay them themselves and then we will see what the membership might think.

Meanwhile poor old Vince Cable http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/8559306/Vince-Cable-heckled-at-union-conference.html is taking on his own war of words with the unions. He threatens new laws against strike action. Bring it on says Wilt.

What is the point of striking? There will be, as Wilt has long predicted, huge cuts in non-jobs, a realistic pension scheme, a freeze (i.e. cut) in salaries and a severe curtailment of outlandish conditions of service.

Before you know it, there will be some kind of equality between the public and private sectors.

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Wilt being a businessman, not a trade union member and unable to claim sick pay or take paid holidays believes these civil servants and local authority persons to have taken the piss for too long. Furthermore, Wilt has to finance his own office costs, heating/lighting and his own pension fund – neither does he have (as do public servants) a whole infrastructure of publicly funded finance officers/accountants to sort out his accounts, payments of wages and sort the tax return. Wilt does all that, at his expense/own time, in addition to the day job.

These public servants need a good dose of reality. That will cure them.

Wilt (grrrr)

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Wilt Portfolio

It was inevitable that the focus on MPs expenses would turn to the expenses of civil servants and local government officers. The Telegraph are on a run with this latest attack of those high living officers: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/8555445/Civil-servants-spend-25m-on-credit-cards-including-luxury-hotels-fine-dining-and-golf-trips.html

If there is truth in some of these claims then like MPs and Peers some of these civil servants and town hall geeks should be investigated by the police. It makes the blood boil.

We will see how this story develops.

Council Housing

Meanwhile council/housing association tenants who earn more than £100,000 are set to lose their rent subsidised homes: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/8555223/Rich-to-lose-their-subsidised-council-homes.html

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Sounds like a good idea to me, especially if it hits the likes of that mad twat Bob Crow of the RMT union who, wait for it, earns more than £140,000 – and no doubt he has a union credit card for expenses.

Taxpayer Funded Union Officials

Talking of trade unions the Tax Payers Alliance (Wilt is a member) are pursuing a number of campaigns including the ridiculous position where full time trade union officials are paid for by employers – e.g. the NHS and local authorities. See an example here: http://www.taxpayersalliance.com/grassroots/2011/05/union-funding-tameside-council-rockets-48.html

London 2012 Tickets

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Another TPA campaign is to pursue those local authorities, quango and central government departments who have purchased London 2012 at taxpayers’ expense. See the article here:  http://www.taxpayersalliance.com/waste/2011/06/tickets-olympic-games-councils-quangos-snapping.html

The TPA are asking people to undertake a Freedom of Information request to their local council – details and a pro-forma can be found on the link above.

London Mayor

Of course the only sensible candidate is Boris – red Ken would be a nightmare but there is an equally nightmarish option of Lembit: http://order-order.com/2011/06/03/lembit-for-london-lumbering-along/

Some people just do not get it – do they? Wilt once had the unfortunate experience of bumping into Lembit in a hotel bar, along with several other political figures following a Question Time programme that was held in Llandudno in North Wales – Wilt was chairing a Tribunal hearing and was put up at the same hotel where David Dimbleby et al were also staying. Lembit was as much as a pillock as he looks/sounds.

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If Lembit gets in as Mayor (very unlikely) it would be time to pack your bags and emigrate to Mount Etna; if Ken gets in try emigrating to North Korea – their left wing views are a little less extreme!

Conditions of Service

As Wilt predicted some time ago the next phase of attack on central and local government is the ridiculous conditions of service offered to staff, not least sick pay: see the Mail article here http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1394106/Civil-service-sick-pay-Francis-Maude-pledges-end-archaic-benefits-system.html

The Government is dismantling pensions, pay, expenses and now sick pay – next holiday entitlement, which also needs examining. I know Watchful will see red – sorry mate.

Wilt Portfolio

That is a pick of the news while Wilt has been away.

Wilt

FROM A HOTEL DESK

Wilt Portfolio

Well, we eventually got here; the location being two hours ahead of the UK it was still possible to attend the meeting. We have a couple of appointments tomorrow and thereafter we are back at home.

In the interim, after a shower and a change of suit, and just before dinner with clients we have been reviewing the news in our hotel room.

Here is a proper piece of news: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mps-expenses/8552313/MPs-expenses-3.2m-bill-for-first-two-months-of-2011.html indicating that MPs are yet again lacking a understanding of what is needed in terms of Parliamentary expenses.

Do they never learn?

Wilt Portfolio

Off to dinner. We think we will have duck!

Wilt

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It is bloody obvious that a whole host of folk have it in for Huhne:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-13606187 the widely despised Lib Dem Energy Secretary.

Not least our co-blogger Guido Fawkes: http://order-order.com/2011/05/31/exclusive-electoral-commission-reviewing-huhne-evidence/ and the chap at the Sunlight Centre http://order-order.com/2011/05/25/second-complaint-to-electoral-commission-for-huhne/

The guy (Huhne) must be in a state of despair over the twin frontal attack on his alleged fraud over election expenses and his alleged passing off of speeding penalty points to ‘another.’ It could not happen to a better chap!

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Wilt