We can achieve anything acting together

We can achieve anything if we act together like this, said one marcher today as hundreds of thousands march through London. Here we report on the march at Piccadilly, with the huge UNISON contingent still passing after at least an hour.

One reported police estimate is that 400,000 are marching. Even the Daily Mail is owning up to 250,000 in the biggest trade union demonstration in a generation.

A huge sea of purple and green UNISON banners, flags and placards are packing London’s streets to the deafening sound of UNISON vuvuzelas in a massive show of solidarity and resolve to save our public services and welfare state from the most savage attacks they have ever seen.

Myths rally to attack national bargaining

Attacks on national bargaining are not new. Neither are myth-peddling and selective statistics to whip up hysteria against public service workers. But to see both so transparently together in a self-contradicting liberal think tank paper would be entertaining if it were not so dangerously dressed up as academic analysis.

The Telegraph jumps on the bandwagon with a piece by Julian Astle of the CentreForum think tank extolling the work of Professor Alison Wolf who manages to conclude that “Britain needs to rid itself of rigid centralised wage bargaining. These systems are economically harmful, undermine quality in the public services, and perpetuate disadvantage.”

Brain hurts: £900m bankers’ bonus ‘fair’ while £5k cut for police staff ‘good deal'

Justifying £900m in bonuses, the RBS’s Stephen Hester told the BBC yesterday that, “Along with my staff, I want to be treated fairly”. Well, Stephen, so do thousands of police staff in Scotland who are facing up to a £5,000 a year cut in wages which is described by the employers as a ‘good deal’.

Another of those ‘my brain hurts moments’ isn’t it? In order for the country to recover, one of the banks who created the mess while earning huge bucks have to get more bucks as a reward for losing £1.13billion. That is, apparently, being treated ‘fairly’. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12571381 

On the other hand, the people who suffered from the mess and who deliver essential and efficient police services, are facing a cut of £5,000 on a wage of £25,000. That, according to the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, is ‘a good deal’. http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/politics/plans-to-slash-pay-of-civilian-staff-are-attacked-1.1087172

Tourist tax would help combat the looming cuts

It is hard to comprehend just how savage the cuts are. Such is the scale, that they are destroying the very fabric of services, not just for the next few years but forever.

The cuts are ideologically, not financially driven. The debt was much higher in the 1940s but we could still build our treasured NHS. The few economists who actually predicted the crash say that cuts of this speed and size will make things worse.

'Don't handcuff our councils' says UNISON as cuts hit Scotland

UNISON Scotland says Government moves to dictate how council budgets are spent is effectively ‘handcuffing’ local authorities and sounds the death knell for democracy. http://www.unison-scotland.org.uk/news/2011/janfeb/1002.htm 

Trade unionists, community groups and members of the public were lobbying council meetings across Scotland today to urge their elected members to put the needs of their communities first when setting their budgets.

Deficit fibbers

“He knows the deficit hasn't been caused by "waste", but seeing as that starting point is a lie, the stories they tell might as well be made up completely”. Mark Steel writes a knockabout on the deficit and Grant Shapps in the Independent…….

Poll shows Labour 8% ahead but still not winning on economy - Why?

Labour has opened up an eight-point lead over the Conservatives, according to a ComRes survey for The Independent. The figures would give Labour an overall majority of 102 if repeated at the next election. However, Labour has not yet won the key battle on the economy. Why http://www.comres.co.uk/page1902124918.aspx

Snow: Public service workers at their best

As extreme snow conditions hit hard, public service workers across the country have as usual responded above and beyond the call. Here are just a few examples from Edinburgh of the human faces behind the numbers of jobs facing the axe or being sold off.

Home carers visiting on foot through up to a foot of snow. The Ranger service providing a 4x4 to get them to inaccessible clients. Other staff volunteering their own 4x4s to help out. The police helping out.

Mobilise to defend public services

Closing speech to UNISON Scotland Mobilise 2010 training weekend: That’s the end of our event and I don’t know about you but I’ve been inspired by the weekend. Inspired by the work everyone has put in and about the way everyone has got involved to make it a success.

Aung San Suu Kyi Released – 1 Down, 2,202 To Go

"We will not let the world forget that you and thousands of others are in prison for standing up for democracy and the rights of workers", UNISON President Angela Lynes told 2009 National Conference as it marked Aung San Suu Kyi’s 64th Birthday under house arrest. As she is released today, the Burma Campaign turns to the thousands of other political prisoners in Burma’s jails.

We don’t believe your lies – and we won’t accept your cuts

Expectations were high for the Edinburgh demo. All the signs were that people were building for it. But even then, the turnout exceeded expectations, such is the widespread anger against the unfairness and savagery of the cuts. The anger at a government that “blames the excesses of the privileged on the poor”. Colourful and lively, over 20,000 people marched along iconic Princes Street with one clear message. There is a better way. http://www.unison-scotland.org.uk/

Deficit deniers? What about cuts deniers?

Nick Clegg was yesterday trying to rubbish the Institute of Fiscal Studies' evidence that, with the exception of the richest 2% of the population, the least well-off would be hit the hardest, and families with children would lose out the most due to ConDem cuts.

Does Green realise he's arguing against privatisation?

UNISONActive readers will not have missed the irony of Sir Phillip Green advising the government how to save money while quite legally depriving it of the very millions in taxes that could avoid cuts in the first place.

We said 11 years ago PFI was a bad deal - at last they’ve got it

 An Edinburgh Evening News ‘exclusive’ on 21 July 2010 says its investigation has found that the NHS will have to pay a total of £1.26 billion for the privately built Edinburgh Royal Infirmary - and still not own it. Clearly this investigation has taken a whole seven years because in August 2003, a UNISON Scotland briefing said the Consort PFI consortium was “earmarked to receive a cumulative £1.26 billion.... Consort will also benefit by inheriting the whole hospital building when the contract eventually expires.”

Selling Edinburgh off will come at great cost to us all

In an otherwise enlightening article on council funding and privatisation (Counting the cost of public sector cuts, News, July 27), Rory Reynolds spoils it when he says "the status quo is unsustainable". http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/opinion/Letters-Selling-Edinburgh-off-will.6446318.jp

Lockerbie: Is there truth? Is there compassion?

The politically charged blame game, feasting on whether a terminally ill man is not dying soon enough, shows no respect to the victims of Lockerbie, the sovereignty of the Scottish legal system or the concept of compassion. It betrays a political process based on a sincerity (if you can fake that, you’ve made it) that comes only from opinion polls. Followers masquerading as leaders.

Even Chambers of Commerce say cuts will harm recovery‏

It is clear that businesses are anticipating the planned reductions in public spending at a Scottish and UK level to have a dampening effect on the recovery", says the Scottish Chambers of Commerce in releasing their second quarter Business Survey results today.

A voice for social work in poetry?

John Stevenson reviews 'Dancing With Big Eunice - Missives from the frontline of a fractured society" by Alistair Findlay

In a world of guideline after guideline, key performance indicators, inspections and media savagery, social work these days can seem so distant from the human relationships that should be central to the job.

Then along came poetry.

Poetry?

Goldberg: I now have a million brothers and sisters - comrades too I hope..

It is always hard to write a report of Denis Goldberg speaking. You can rush at it in the height of the emotion or you can wait a bit and analyse. We've waited a bit.

There must be something that has half of the Scotland delegation at UNISON Conference 20101 unashamedly in tears. What is it?

Is it the straightforward honesty we treasure in Scotland, although we tend to approach it with a tad more bluntness?

Is it the knowledge that you are listening to someone who has given more to the cause than any of us will ever know?

Go back to your branches and organise for the fightback

UNISON Conference 2010: You get Conferences that inspire. Conferences that divide with destructive quasi-political infighting. And you get 2010.

A quiet and serious resolve characterised the contributions and responses as almost 3,000 delegates set out a range of strategies to prepare for the biggest attacks we have ever seen on our services, our pensions, our pay, our health and safety and our hard won rights and equalities.

It was time to get down to work and organising is the key.