Rallying call to save Royal British Legion clubs
- Today's leader
Protests in Telford over public sector jobs cut threat
Wednesday 6th October 2010, 5:30PM BST.
The Unison Defending Public Services tour Bus calls in at the Civic Offices in Telford town centre.
Protesters rode through Telford on an open-top double decker bus today in a show of opposition to rumoured Government proposals to cut public sector jobs and pay.
Members of Unison trade union rode through the town before the bus parked up outside the town centre bus station.
The union represents workers at Shropshire Council, Telford & Wrekin Council, Revenue and Customs, and the Princess Royal and Royal Shrewsbury Hospitals.
Unison regional officer Richard Tudor said people across Telford would be hit if the Government decides to cut jobs in the town in its imminent spending review.
Shouting from the top of the bus, he said: “The bankers caused the problem. Fight the cuts. The working class should not be made to pay. The Tories’ cuts are not welcome in Telford.”
Mr Tudor added: “The Tory conference is in Birmingham but we have come to Telford because there are so many public sector workers here.
“Public services are at risk and the cuts are going to be deep, so the citizens of Telford and Shropshire are going to be affected.”
Telford MP David Wright said: “I intend to fight to protect jobs in Telford.
“In my view the Tories are cutting the deficit far too quickly and this endangers public sector jobs and risks the fragile economic recovery that we are seeing.”
Sponsored Links
Most Commented
- Shropshire Council will face £8m redundancy bill
- Clampdown on Shrewsbury chuggers
- Bishop's gay marriage views do nothing to support bible teachings
- Letter: Alcohol price plans annoy me
- Letter: No sense in overseas job adverts
- Letter: Angered by close encounter of the furred kind
- The Bleak Old Shop of Stuff doesn't raise a smile
Shropshire Star on Twitter
Keep updated with the latest breaking news and content on our Twitter feed.
Lifestyle
Interactive Dining Out map
Hundreds of reviews by the Shropshire Star and Express & Star's teams to help you decide where to eat.
Entertainment
All the film reviews
Before you plan a trip to the pictures, get our critics' verdicts on all the latest movie releases.
OUR NEW APP
Get the new Shropshire Star app
Download the Shropshire Star’s new app to your iPad or iPhone to get one week of access to our digital newspapers absolutely FREE.
shropshirestar.com
Popular sections
Useful links
In dreamland these people, absolute dreamland.
I work in the public sector, and yes, concerned about the future – but if there is no money in the pot, I have the understanding that there will be redundancies, cuts and a less services. And wherever I work, i’ll see the benefit with lower taxes.
Many services could well be offered by the public sector – just look at Suffolk Councils plans.
Instead of moaning about it and fighting job cuts, lets earn our positions serving the public (like many people have in the private sector).
Report abuse
I’m thinking of getting a bus and protesting at protesters protesting about cuts. In other words, I’m in favour of public sector cuts and maybe we should voice our opinion!!!
Report abuse
good on them! lets get this condem lot out
Report abuse
Yes, Ed! Great plan. Then there would be massively increased public spending under NewLab/OldLab (or whatever flavour it is these days!) and all will be well.
But it wouldn’t, would it? There would STILL be Billions of Pounds of cuts, but they’d be OK, as they’d be the people’s cuts, right?
Ed, the party is over, the bouncers are getting nervous, they need you to leave the pub. Oh! It’s “Goodbye… sir!” Think you’d best go, now!)
Report abuse
Because of cause, David Wright was 100% against the Billions of Pounds of cuts in public spending that were part of the programme of the last Labour government!
Oh. He wasn’t. Was he?
Report abuse
deficit denying socialist stooges, losers fighting for labour, red eds dead bread lead, they are all russian spies, the lot of them want to steal our money and give it to the poor, that is because they are commies, sack the lot of them if they dont like the terms and conditions let them go and work in the ussr
Report abuse
Looking at the timing of your comment there Fred, am I to take it that you posted after enjoying a night out in your local hostelry?
Report abuse
if your job gets cut,then you either was’nt needed any more,or was’nt doing a very good one.
why should they be safe in their job’s when noone else is?.
Report abuse
kev, if you really think they are going to make hundreds of thousands of people redundant on the basis that they aren’t needed or weren’t doing a good job, you are beyond stupid. No doubt you’ll be the first to moan when you find a service that you need has been affected.
Report abuse
These were protesting on a Wednesday. Now, let’s wonder if they were authorised to take the day off for this purpose, if they took a day’s annual leave, if they are full-time union activists going about their proper duties, if they took a day’s “sickies” or if they are what appear to be elderly pensioners (on the right of the picture) and not employed by any Public Service Dept.
They perhaps think that the coming cuts should be applied to others and not themselves. Was this the Union who’s leader said there must not be one single cut or one single job lost from the public sector. In other words, the country just goes on as before, just one step from total bankruptcy with the Public Sector still continuing to live off the pig’s back, still taking their gold plated secure pensions etc whilst the private sector have to put up with all the pain.
They want to get real, I suspect that they will get little sympathy if they plead poverty and go on strike.
Report abuse
In a democracy people are allowed to protest and all this hype about gold plated pensions is far from the truth in regards to the majority but no doubt you believe all the rubbish the SUN and Mail print.
Report abuse
Stuart,
You have previously indicated that you spent much of your career in the public services of one sort or another, and that now you are a pensioner.
So why would you wish to deny people the pensions they have worked all their lives for in some cases, whilst you continue to benefit? Why should there be one rule for you, and a different rule fr today’s ublic servants?
The average public sector pension is just £7000 per annum. More money is put into tax relief on private pension contributions than is into public sector pensions, so the suggestion that somehow these are ‘gold-plated’ is simply fallacious.
It is not the public sector who are ‘living off the pig’s back’ – it is the very wealthy, who own the vast majority of our country’s wealth – Osbourne and Cameron fall into this category, since both have multi-million pound family fortunes – you and I fall into the other category, the group from whom they seek to take money to preserve their wealth.
Why can we not take neasures to ensure that the extremely wealthy pay the same proportion of their income as tax as the ordinary working man?
Most ordinary people pay between 20-35% or so of their income as tax and NI – the very wealthy typically pay less than 10% of their income, since they have a myriad of tax dodges and fiddles available to them that are not available to humble PAYE mortals. If we fixed that inequity, and forced the banks to pay back the 30% of GDP they stole from us, we’d have solved the so-called ‘debt crisis’ overnight. Don’t forget, debt as a proportion of GDP, excluding the money the banks cost us is 32% of GDP.
Back in 1997 when Labout took over from the Tories, debt was running at over 40% of GDP. So how are we now ‘just one step from total bankruptcy’ when we weren’t then?
Report abuse
Did Telford grind to a halt when these people had the day off, did anyone even notice that they weren’t at their desks….unlikely, so they might as well go then, they won’t be missed.
Report abuse
Fair comment Roadrunner, haven’t really justified why we need them in the first place have they?
The spending cuts are going to happen and no amount of whining is going to stop them so people need to just find a way to get on with it. We’ve all got to help and support eahc other now, not keep fighting amongst ourselves.
Report abuse
Stuart
Will give you the benifit of the doubt that you are not just a wind up merchant -
1 – cuts in public spending are because the government gave all our money to the banks – makes no odds which political party because the new lot are continuing what the last lot started e.g. give the countries money to the rich and make everyone else pay to balance the books.
2- As for ‘Gold Plated’ pensions – Police and Fire pay 11.5% PER MONTH into their pension scheme – for 30 years – we have lived at a reduced income for all of our career because this is the deal. The money taken from our salary has been spent by the government building schools, hospitals, roads etc – so how can it be fair for anyone to support reducing our pensions? we have paid in and kept our side of the deal – government has chosen to use our monthly contributions rather than invest them, society has had the benifit of our contributions (schools etc) so why should we now accept a reduction in our pension??
Report abuse
To all those with negative comments against public servants – you’ll be complaining when you can’t get your pensions, your job-seeker’s allowance, your trip to the hospital, your book from the library or your tax refund. All these people have taken a lower than average wage for YEARS because being a public servant meant doing your job well and being proud to serve the public. In fact, when the national minumum wage came in, the biggest group affected were civil servants! If there are cuts, they should be based around cost-cutting not job-cutting. Because this way YOU ARE NOT DESTROYING PEOPLE’S LIVES!!!
Report abuse
Yeah, bring it on. Because the first people affected by cuts in the public service will be the private sector. If more people are on the dole, there’ll be fewer people buying goods and services. You’ll all be moaning then, won’t you?
Report abuse