Save Public Services in the North West

There is a clear consensus among the main political parties. The solution to the national deficit is to cut public services.

Yet we have a national deficit because the banking sector collapsed, sparking a recession.

Bailing out the banks cost billions, and the recession hit tax revenues and increased unemployment. Public services did not cause this crisis, and we should not have to pay for the crisis through cuts in our services.

What runs through all the attacks on the terms and conditions of public-sector workers is a brutal logic that wages and pensions should be forced down to the lowest level.

The benchmark for this is the private sector, where wages are compared to non-unionised workers.

This global race to the bottom is central to the economic collapse we have seen around the world. Squeezed consumers are defaulting on mortgages and personal debts, and are less able to spend in the economy.

This is not a theory, but a fact – the share of Britain’s national income going to wages has declined from 65 per cent in the 1970s to 53 per cent today. The same phenomenon has been witnessed around the world. Neoliberal economic practice is devouring itself, and with it ruining millions of lives.

The basic state pension is still under £100 per week, one of the lowest in Europe. The official poverty level is £165 per week. Proposing to increase the state pension age to 66 immediately and gradually up to 70 would hit the poorest hardest. They earn less and so are less able to take early retirement. Because of this and a lifetime of lower standards of living, they die younger. With the current unprecedented levels of inequality, raising the pension age is grossly unjust.

The main pensions target for the stale Westminster party consensus is public-sector pensions. Currently, the average public-sector pension is about £4,000 a year, or about £80 per week – hardly the “gold-plated,” “feather-bedded” lap of luxury that the tabloids would have us believe.

In fact, two and a half times as much public-sector money is spent subsidising private-sector pensions through tax relief – and 60 per cent of this relief goes to higher rate earners at the higher rate.

A recent IPSOS/MORI opinion poll revealed that only 24 per cent of the British public thought there was a need to cut spending on public services. The same poll found that people were most in favour of tax rises on business, closely followed by inheritance tax.

Despite the cross-party consensus, it is clear that people know there are alternatives to public service cuts, and there is a clear belief that those who gained the most from the boom should pay for the bust.