Public sector workers need 'discipline and fear', says Oliver Letwin

[Tortington]

oliver letwin

sorry swc - you are too easy a target this evening. Having said that, you appear to be asking for it. All of that 'beasting' you do. Good night.

i think they are on a short fuse becuase their jobs are unsafe, they work longer than they get paid for, the pay is comparitably shit, and they are refered to as being shit. oh yes, and they can get their whole families jobs despite thorough checks and balances in place. I wish dh could get my son a job in the council where he works. Sometimes i really do wonder what climate people think we are living in that we are so avle to hop from job to job or public to private. It saddens me further, that this thinking is restricted to professionals. there are plenty of semi skilled/manual/unskilled type jobs that are under threat too. i suppose they don't matter. And when they get screwed lets hope they can find a CAB to advise them after they are closing too

The real trick the Tories have pulled off is Devide and Conquer.

yes drosophilia - there is nothing the Tories like more than a row between the PS and the private sector - the competition drives down wages and conditions of service for everybody. It's really old school stuff.

Maybe public sector people should have considered this when they were laughing while normal people were losing their jobs, and having to work for lower and lower wages under Labour? Did they really think it wasn't going to bite them on the arse eventually?

oh Tarty, you lose it when you describe PS workers as abnormal. You really have no credibility.

Most people in this country do not work for the public sector. That might be hard to believe for some people. Most of us work for the nasty private sector that pays for the wages and pensions of those in the public sector.

TartyDoris, surely PS workers are normal people too? I never heard PS workers laughing when 'normal people' were losing their jobs.

I am happy to say that I have never met these public sector workers you speak of Tarty - we are just normal people and we're even nice people!

Timidviper asks "I wonder if there is a collective noun for twats?!"
There is: A Coalition

timidviper asks:
"I wonder if there is a collective noun for twats?!"
There is; "A coalition."

I'm a public sector worker. I pay taxes. Therefore, surely, don't I also pay the wages and pensions of public sector workers? Or is there a special pot where public sector wages go into to be shared out in bonuses (ha!) and corporate freebies that I don't know about?

when they were laughing while normal people were losing their jobs

this is just nuts

[hmm]@laughing... just bizzarre

I'm a public sector worker. I pay taxes. Therefore, surely, don't I also pay the wages and pensions of public sector workers?
The taxes you pay are taxes that other people have already paid. You are a net recipient from the state.

Here are some people who are lazy, thick and leech off the taxpayer:

• fighter pilots
• Treasury Mandarins
• Paediatric nurses
• Teachers of mathematics
• the Master of the Rolls
• Ordnance Survey cartographers
• MI6 agents
• smallwhitecat's DH

Here are some people who are energetic, intelligent and create wealth:

• libel lawyers
• estate agents
• sweaty men shouting into telephones in the City
• red-top journalists
• insurance salesmen
• blokes who tarmac drives
• smallwhitecat

Most of this "argument" about public sector vs private sector is based on a completely false opposition. As someone above said, the only purpose it can serve is to sow division.

nepkoztarsasag You forgot The Royals' in your 1st list...effing scroungers

"I'm a public sector worker. I pay taxes. Therefore, surely, don't I also pay the wages and pensions of public sector workers?
The taxes you pay are taxes that other people have already paid. You are a net recipient from the state."

but haven't i paid tem in the first place? ver rare someone goes into the public sector aged 16 and stays til death

@blokes who tarmac drives

Not strictly true Tarty Doris. I work in higher education. Technically speaking it's public service. However, due to the high number of foreign students and large amounts of donations from alumni and wills, we are almost fully self funded. In legal terms we are a charity.

Therefore, I am public service. I am not a net reciepient from the state. Consequently my taxes are just as much a part of the pot that pays pensions as yours. Given that many private companies are 99www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/reports/comp_policy/oft750.pdf subsidised by the govt]], your argument that the private sector pays for the public is simply bolleaux.

Ooops, preview, preview, preview

govt subsidies

collective noun: A Coalition Of Twats

net recipient = purely monetary calculation = knowing the price of everything and the value of nothing.
Surely one purpose of the public sector is to provide services that the private sector cannot/will not provide because it is too difficult to make a profit. How do you think the public sector came about in the first place?