TUC National Demonstration Against Cuts

[OrangeBernard]

Who's going? I've just booked my train tickets. Its my first protest, any advice or tips? Bit worried about kettling.

how is not realising you are following the wrong model competent?

I would rather not drink anything with Polly Toynbee personally.

Xenia - There is certainly SOME point debating whether some services are worth it or not, otherwise you might end up cutting something that costs you money instead of saving it.

wook - Because you may not be the one that picks the model, because following the model even if it's wrong but it makes you money is competent, because competent doesn't mean perfect, because most of the time going along with the consensus is the smart, competent thing to do.

so it depends on your definition of competence?!

so no one is to blame- it's a systemic failure?

you could argue the same about all incompetence then, you could say with teachers that it's a systemic thing: bad curriculum model, poor monitoring, management and leadership, wider social issues...

The way people talk about people in the financial services sector, they are some kind of gods. But they failed! They failed in a way that frontline public sector workers would never be forgiven for (by the DM contingent)

How dare you challenge the competency of the banking filth MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE.

We cant bail out or invest in industry such as Sheffield Forgemasters but we can bail out Banks.

wook - No lots of people are to blame - they were competent but wrong. It's a different model of performance to an incompetent teacher.

The city = guess right, guess right, guess right, guess wrong, guess right, guess right, guess wrong, guess right, guess right, guess right, guess right, guess right, guess right, catastrophic failure, guess right, guess right.

Incompetent teacher = Teach badly, teach badly, teach badly, teach badly, teach badly, teach badly, teach badly, teach badly, teach badly, teach badly, teach badly, teach badly, teach badly.

This is taking an incompetant to mean someone who can't do their job properly despite adequate training, support etc.

SWC, they may no longer be working in banking but how much of the money they received on their path to the (almost) destruction of our economy and the banks they worked in have they had to return.

As always it is rewards for faliure at the top (Fred the Shred and his pension for one)

Couldn't resist posting this..
johannhari.com/2011/03/29/the-biggest-lie-in-british-politics

Yawn, not again!

Didn't that Hari article already get discussed further up?

newwave "We cant bail out or invest in industry such as Sheffield Forgemasters but we can bail out Banks."

The thing that gets easily forgotten is that bailing out the banks didn't happen because of some cosy sweetheart deal. It happened because if we had a complete meltdown of global financial services then everything would grind to a halt.

Implying that it's a matter of consequence-free choice which industries to bail out is a specious argument. If one heavy industry plant goes under, yes the consequences for its employees are shit but it's not going to cause a global run on banks. Whereas the knock-on effects of Lehman going under shook the world. It's not fair, but it's how things are. Suggesting this is somehow down to political bias is just nonsense.

Or to put it even more briefly: if the banks had gone under Sheffield Forgemasters would have been fucked anyway.

Sorry, I haven't read all the posts..

smallwhitecat oh yeah, you're right, Fred Goodwin retired didn't he.....

coalition it seems that when things at the bottom go wrong it's 'individual failings', when things go wrong at the top, it's 'systemic failure'. That makes me think

How is it competent to be wrong? Don't get it.

Society always like a whipping boy. Every generation has had one and at the moment it's bankers.

As we all know we have some of the best financial institutions in the world and most of the poor are dependant in fairly large part on what is earned in the City of London. If we are not careful we will kill the goose which lays the golden eggs.

The banking sector isn't a 'whipping boy' - it actually did mess up very badly.

We have one of the best health services in the world, which is just about to be dismantled by Cameron and his mob.

The dependency between the rich and the poor is mutual. It's the people doing poorly paid, menial jobs that make the world go round.

found out that our local authority has £30m in reserve yet still cut jobs.

mental

can anyone justify that?

Xenia, I don't understand what you mean by what is 'earnt' in the city? If the poor did not do the low paid jobs, if people did not produce anything, buy anything etc then there would be nothing for the city to gamble in the first place. As rosebud said, it's mutual and the benevolent goose analogy is absurd. I'll carry it on anyway: if the goose laid golden eggs, it would be down to what it had been fed.

I don't agree. You need those who generate money. If you cast them out or tax them too much they leave. We have always had market crashes and recessions. It's how markets work.

Anyway it doesn't much matter what people's views are as all parties agree great big cuts are needed and they will happen.

but they aren't needed

Unfortunately, the bankers who messed up haven't left have they? They've still leeching off public funds.

EVERYONE involves in capitalism generates money Xenia, that's how it works.

How can money be generated if goods are not generated and sold Xenia?

All parties agree major cuts are needed. Not all parties would make the political choices we are seeing now.

smallwhitecat do you mean like your 'extensive experience' of state schools???