Hundreds of firefighters sign open letter urging 'don't vote Tory' in wake of brigade cuts

[blacksunday]

More than 250 firefighters have signed an open letter urging people not to vote Tory in light of what they call "a sustained and vicious attack on frontline emergency services".

It follows a letter published in the Telegraph last month in which 100 business leaders backed the Conservatives and praised the party's economic plans.

Introducing the letter on his blog, West Midlands firefighter Andrew - whose surname the Standard has agreed not to publish - wrote: "We must show that 100 FTSE 100 executives do not represent the British public. We value our public services far more than we value making a small percentage of already wealthy people more wealthy."

Speaking to the Standard today, he added: "The Tory-led coalition government has decimated the UK fire and rescue service and firefighters are at the point now where we do not feel we can guarantee the response they expect.

"London Fire Brigade has been hit very hard with cuts and I know from speaking to colleagues there that they agree with my synopsis in this letter. The capital is not as safe as it was five years ago - Boris Johnson has shut fire stations like they were just windows on a cold day. It is time we started telling our ruling bodies that we will not accept the continued chopping of our vital services."

Ten London fire stations shut last year as part of the Fifth London Safety Plan - more than the sum of the total closures in the preceding 50 years.

Sixteen fire engines - 14 pumps and two specialist fire rescue units - as well as 552 firefighter jobs went in the capital, while more than half London's wards reportedly saw response times increase in the months following, with the average wait time for a fire engine reportedly jumping up to nearly eight minutes in Newham's Royal Docks area.

cont'd...

www.standard.co.uk/news/london/hundreds-of-firefighters-sign-open-letter-urging-dont-vote-tory-in-wake-of-brigade-cuts-10173819.html

Although I personally believe that our firefighters (and other front line workers) deserve every penny they get (and then some), the politicizing of our public sector is not new, just listen to their annual/trade union meetings - even the police had a crack, probably when 'one out of ten' was ever out on the streets at a given time, funny enough under another top police geezer called Blair (no relation).
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-345317/Police-cars-carry-Labour-slogan.html

The fact is that the Public Sector have had it tough, but so have the private sector, in fact according to the IFS, those paying their taxes have had it worse, so was that fair - when tax cuts didn't even occur to a labour government - who took away the 10p starter tax rate, was still putting up Council Taxes, and put through rises in National Insurance for after the 2010 election (brave), the Coalition reversed?
www.theguardian.com/business/2015/jan/30/british-wage-slump-post-financial-crisis-uk

“Private sector workers have so far experienced larger earnings falls than public sector workers, largely because of the period between the onset of recession and the beginning of the current period of public sector pay restraint in 2011.”

So it could be worse as I've never experience a recession when everyones salaries went up, never mind the 'great recession', and in countries that never got their finances sorted i.e. Greece, Spain and Portugal, they had their NHS budgets slashed by up to 17% - I wonder how their workers did salary wise?

Not a surprise....

Not a surprise.

But, and a very big BUT, as Labour haven't said where their cuts will be nor that emergency services will not be touched (or have cuts reversed), this really might not make a difference.

Unless they are saying vote UKIP or Green instead.

Isitmebut-

You seem unable to differentiate between essential public services and private sector companies, some of which serve no socially useful function.

The article isn't just about wage suppression, which is happening universally, but such drastic cuts in public funding for public services that essential services like the Fire Brigades, Education and Health are in danger of collapsing.