Public-sector strike: does it get your support? Please vote in our Facebook poll

[HelenMumsnet]

Morning.

We'd love to know how you feel about Wednesday's public-sector strike action. Does it get your support - or not?

We've put up a little poll on our Facebook page to help us find out. Please do click and vote.

Thanks v much, MNHQ

At present in the Local government sector, employers contributions to pensions amount to 19.6% of pay
in other words if a bin man earns £10,000 the cost to the ratepayer is £11,960
(ERS NI not included as that is irrespective of pensions)

wages account for around half of all public sector spending
therefore nearly 10% of the WHOLE public sector budget goes on employers pension contributions
paid by those of us who will NEVER get the same thing

sorry guys but it is NOT fair to expect YOUR children to carry on doing that.

Jeremy Clarkson. Nooooooooooooooooooo

Clarkson is an utter cunt. Love Stewart Lee on him

Not on facebook. Definitely support the strike today. It seems unfair to use the public sector as a skapegoat for the government's failure to regulate the banks which have caused the whole financial mess. Public sector workers do a great job and many of us wouldn't like to do their job anyway. For example, teacher's work is not a 9-5 job that you forget about when you get home until the next day. Their work continues after school, throughout the evening and basically they have little time left for their family. Weekends and holidays are taken up with marking and preparation and if not working, feeling guilty for not doing so! They are not only teachers; they are mentors, social workers, psychologists, administrators, you name it, and it looks they are also childminders for parents who work. I don't know many people who would accept to work basically non-stop, give up their family life for no extra pay whatsoever. Some may say they shouldn't choose this job. I would say we are lucky there are people who still choose to do these jobs. Everybody goes on about private sector's pensions not being as good as the public's. Private sector has its own pros. I work for a private company and get overtime paid, other bonuses and perks, pay rise every year,a good pension that the company contributes to, but surprisingly enough a good number of colleagues choose not to contribute to it but whinge about others. I wonder how those who criticise the strike would feel if their bosses told them they would have a pay freeze for the next couple of years?

I dont really know how to respond to that.

I am an unpaid mother - I have NO pension because I worked in the private sector and was made redundant when I tried to go back part-time.

I will have to work til I drop (I don't expect the state pension will exist by the time I get there)

BUT do I begrudge the public service workers who have supported me ALL MY LIFE striking today - NO. THEY WORK BLOODY HARD and an attack on their pensions is YET ANOTHER attack on MY public services.

I went on the central london march today, with my DD to show our support. It's her future and the futures of all our children that are being destroyed by the financial fiasco this government is orchestrating. They want to DESTROY our public sector and if they succeed they will also destroy this country.

not on FB, don't support the strike

I do hope you all watched channel 4 news tonight for the facts about the pensions, how affordable they really are, and how many lies the government have told you about the offer they have made to the unions

re Clarkson
can't stand the man at the best of times so very happy he has given me the excuse to make an official complaint to the BBC.

I have had to complain to teh BBC because I am enraged.

How bloody dare that idiot make comments like that?

What on earth does he contribute to society other than dressing badly and driving like an idiot around europe in borrowed cars.

if anyone should be 'shot' its him.

I haven't met anyone in real life who supports the strike. Mumsnet is very odd.

My pension has fallen in value to not much more than half of its worth pre-credit crunch. That's the reality for a lot of people in the private sector.

I support the right for anyone to strike, but I absolutely don't support the cause of today's strike. Ridiculous is the only word that really sums it up.

Clarkson missed the public mood with his comments about the train suicides.

Swedes - is that because you fraternise with other right-wingers? As a nurse and (I think) fairly typical member of the public I've met loads of people who support the strike.

Swedes2 71% in the Twitter poll run by Sky News supported it. Are they all the same people as those on MN? There is a lot of support around for the strike, though plenty of people also who don't support it.

The Clarkson 'shot' comment was very badly judged. He is a professional agitator but someone should have stepped in to edit that. Trouble is Top Gear makes the BBC shitloads so they will be in an awkward position re disciplining him.

Hah, it sounds like the strike was a damp squib. Nobody I've spoken to back in the UK noticed anything different apart from quieter roads.

inhibernation - yes I only ever speak to people with buck teeth, wearing large blue rossettes and carrying tax avoidance manuals.

Eightieschick, I agree it's weird, it's clearly me who's out of step. I'm normally very good at assessing the public mood.

Eightieschick - Ahhh but Twitter poll is hardly representative of the population at large. It feels to me as though the population at large aren't in support of this strike.

From politicalbetting.com

"Another issue comes from ComRes: 56% agreed that public sector workers ?have to take their share of the economic pain which means accepting reductions in their pension provision?. Just 28% disagree and 16% say they don?t know.

On Ed Miliband?s position YouGov found 23% think saying he he should support the action with 33% saying he should oppose them. Amongst Labour supporters 41% think the strikes should be supported with 14% opposing.

Mike Smithson @MikeSmithsonPB

Posted in Uncategorized | 514 Comments

It?s the eve of the big strike in the PB NightHawks cafe?
November 29th, 2011

Who?s going to come out of this on top?
With the big strike on public sector pensions due to start in only a few hours it?s quite hard from the polls to work out how the public actually feel.

Some surveys, like TNS-BMRB, this afternoon has support evenly split between the strikers and the government (40% vs. 37%). Other polls, notably YouGov and ComRes have those opposed to the strikes in the the lead.

Thus YouGov at the weekend had 50% opposing headteachers taking stike action against 38% who supported it: 49% opposing teachers going on (41% supported), while the split for civil servants 51-39.

ComRes had broadly similar figures ? 47%, do not believe that public sector workers are right to strike, while 38% believe they are right to take that course of action. Interestingly ComRes had 51%, thinking that the strikes are unlikely to succeed and so should not go ahead.

Does anyone know of any polls that have come up with a majority of respondents not supporting the strike? I would be genuinely interested to know. There was a message being retweeted earlier saying that the Daily Mail had to withdraw its online poll today because the result had come up 84% in favour of the strike. I would love this to be true but am suspicious that someone has been busy with Photoshop or similar. Here's the message with photo for anyone who cares to look / investigate.

X posted with you Swede2! Seems like the public are pretty split on this then. Not that surprising I guess. The thread reflects that quite accurately.

I suspect many that who are against the strike can't be bothered to voice their opinion.

Or are maybe illiterate - perhaps I should try previewing my replies before posting to check they actually make sense!