In the words of President Woodrow Wilson, those who work in the public service believe “that to work for the common good is the greatest creed”. In the past 12 years, it is difficult to detect any sign that the Government adhered to this belief. In fact, “reform” has been a rod with which those in the public sector have been beaten for a decade. Reform has been axiomatic with privatisation, pay freezes or below inflation increases, job cuts, targets and performance indicators and increased pressure on those at the front line, leading to extensively poorer services.
When ministers talk about reform of the public sector, it has been in a manner which characterises it as an inanimate, soulless nuisance which has to be chivvied in order to keep it under control. Rarely does the language embrace the real people, the real jobs – from the teacher to the refuse collector and the road sweeper – who make up the public sector which keeps this and every other country going in any semblance of a civilised society. Liam Byrne, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, recently changed the tone when he described public servants as the “quiet heroes” and praised their “millions of tiny acts of diligence, courage, compassion, professionalism and pride”.
Yet all the main parties appear set on tackling the public deficit by making swingeing cuts in services and the jobs of those with no responsibility for the financial crisis in the first place. The debate turns not on whether cuts are necessary but when the axe should be swung and how deep it should go. When he delivers his pre-Budget report, Chancellor Alistair Darling will be judged on how he plans to reduce public borrowing. This is the wrong ground for any Labour government with any self-respect for the purpose of its being in power and untenable for any government which seriously wants to dig the country out of recession. It is economic madness in a time of recession to cut jobs and public services. That is the Tory solution, as its MPs and members salivate over the prospect of slashing and burning the public sector, while cutting taxes for the wealthiest, but spiralling the economy into a terminal nosedive.
Mr Darling needs to show he has the political courage to break out of the straitjacket in which the recent Tory-led fashion for deep cuts has placed the Government and map out a plan for continued fiscal stimulus. If there is tightening to be done, there is plenty of room for it in other sectors – banks and the rich, for a start. A windfall tax on the banks, to claw back some of the public sector workers’ own money would be sensible but, given the Government’s half-baked response to the return of the bonus culture, may be too much to hope for. Or there is the £112 billion gap of uncollected and avoided tax.
The public sector needs to be properly resourced, with adequate levels of properly trained staff on decent wages. The quiet heroes need to be shown a bit more respect – for the common good.
