OK. I'm furious. This isn't big news, but today I'm really fucking angry and I need to get this off my chest.
Now, I don't mind letting readers know that I work in the public sector and am a member of a Union. But I am a writer of this website because I enjoy writing about and discussing political and cultural matters. I don't do this, like some people, to talk about the workplace or my job.
Firstly, I value my job too much. No job, no food, no ability to maintain my private existence or indeed my corporeal existence. In short, I go on dole, shrivel and die. All because of saying things about work which got rumbled.
Secondly, my work really isn't that interesting, though maybe to a third party it could be, or potentially so.
However, on this occasion, I am going to write about some fucking spectacularly infuriating shit that has gone down at my place...stuff I can't possibly hold on to. Stuff that, no matter how many rants I have in my kitchen with my poor Dame Demetriou in attendance, I cannot purge unless I indulge in Boaty & D catharsis.
I have to keep it vague, but trust me readers, there's no embellishment, no lie here. This is straight up, though simple.
My place - small body, not that many people. The senior Civil Servant in charge of the outfit doesn't have the world's most stressful job in the world. And, to be honest, after last week's news, I think The Boss's job just may well have got that little less stressful.
Because the majority of staff at my place were told last week what this year's pay offer is. I'll be honest, anything over one point would have been fine with me. As it turned out, my expectations were mildly bettered. So I was all up for voting 'Yes' in the imminent Union ballot on whether members wanted to accept or reject the offer.
I was on my way to stick my ballot in the box, when a colleague approached me and told me what the offer was for El Top Dog.
You ready for this?
Which, in this instance due to the fact our Head earns a strong 6 figure salary, equates to the same amount of money that the average person in Britain earns in a year. That's a strong salary, by way of a yearly pay rise.
Here are a couple of added factors - my place commands a relatively tiny budget, and is performing kinda OK.
There you go! All jobs for the boys and girls in Public Sector land, here in Blighty, no doubt at all, and why not? The tables have been turned on the private sector under Labour for a reason. The Civil Service is the primary political and establishment hotbed for Labourites, socialists and other leftists. The entire public sector monolith positively stinks of modern British 'progressive' liberalism.
So Blair and Brown have done wonders in paying off their henchmen and women, encouraging them to stay, forge their little empires within an empire, all so that the public sector grows indefinitely, and so the never ending thirst and demand for taxation and socialist planning.
Here's a thought. Apart from the fact the Treasury is broke, and can't afford these fuck off pay rises in times of depression, why pay that much? Why? Our Head ain't going anywhere! The world economy isn't exactly such that imminent job offers are round the corner, should the pay not get very good. Where's the incentive, where's the reason for this huge Senior pay offer?
Is my cynicism actually more than just cynicism? Could it be true? That this government is using money, thieved from the people, to enrich its allies at the expense of the majority of regular Joes?
This isn't just unfair, this isn't just unethical. This is fucking grand larceny. It's fucking corruption and it makes my motherfucking blood boil, my head seethe and my teeth fucking gnash with anger.
If I had just a little less fucking scruples in my body, I'd make a real fucking fuss about this and it wouldn't be pretty. I guess a blog piece and a democratic union vote will have to do. Meanwhile, fat cat useless, pointless, ineffective public sector Mandarins (who aren't even in that big positions) are taking home BIG MONEY.
So let's re-cap.
Unemployment = rampant.
Standard of living = falling
Cost of Living = rising.
Taxes = rising
Strength of the Pound = falling.
The People = fucked.
And the government is still shelling out fuck off pay rises, whilst holding down the majority of workers' pay and cutting jobs, for the establishment cream. The loyal ones, who have done good things for New Labour over the last 12 years.
There you go. Enjoy voting next May, won't you now.
45 comments:
The only thing I've learned here is that you are a drain on society.
I demand you hang yourself with haste. But douse petrol first, if you'd be so kind.
Sawubona! John..an impresive pay rise indeed..
Perhaps you should channel your outrage into creating your own wealth ...instead of taking the tax payers pound.
Or perhaps not...
I wonder if this might explain why your boss has been given such a massive pay rise
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1218339/Pay-freeze-750-000-public-sector-workers-demands-Darling.html
My guess is this has been in the pipeline for a while, they are heaping the big guys with a massive pay rise now so they will accept a pay freeze next year. I could be talking shite but it looks a bit too much of a coincidence to me.
Mummy x
Of course everyone in the public sector is a drain on the country...
Fucking superb logic. Well done have a fucking medal.
There's an obvious balance. Whilst I rail against huge salaries for the boys, I do not think that everyone else in the public sector is useless or a drain.
There's nothing wrong in having a civil service. It needs to be much smaller and more efficient, but the 'public drain' argument doesn't really hold up and it's a little harsh in my view.
Stan:
"Perhaps you should channel your outrage into creating your own wealth ...instead of taking the tax payers pound."
Hence my secret project, but until then, I'll be doing what the majority of people do in Britain which is work for the state. What with there being a recession on, no credit, few business opportunities and a high tax, anti enterprise culture in society.
Thanks.
Mr Boatang..ask yourself..if your whole office and boss were shown the door after the next election as part of government cut backs...
and the ¨relatively tiny¨..(relative to what).. budget was given back to the wealth creators of the country in say tax breaks.. would the country come to a stand till
Its the massive public sector and quango wage bill thats drinking the life blood of this country.
We need people to empty the bins..to police our streets..defend our borders.
the rest are just pushing bits of paper
or crunching data..
Er ... Boaty ... er ... actually, pretty much every single person in the public sector actually is a drain on the economy, The number of workers who handle jobs that deal with significant externalities is less than 5% of all "public servants" and probably closer to 1%.
Now you could argue that percentage depending on your perspective, but an extremist libertarian could quite easily argue that every single member of the public sector is unequivocally a drain on the economy.
John..yes you do rail against others ¨huge salaries¨but i doubt you would wail so much if your salary was as huge...
As for your ¨secret project¨...well good luck with that..but it will never happen if you continue with your excuses.. ..recession..high tax etc..welcome to everyone`s world..fact is its much easier and safer to take tax pounds..
to sneer at others with one hand and with the other hand hold it out and take the money is at best hipocritical..
i believe the firt step to being a libertarian is to live as a libertarian.
surely.. if you really believed in the many things you say ..you would have removed yourself from being a tax burden some time a go ..as i did..some time ago..before it was trendy to call yourself a Libertarian..
Your welcome!
Stan, please stop '.....', use a full stop or a comma there's a good chap.
"would the country come to a stand till", no, but a very large part of south london and the economy of the south east would.
Obo, this is the problem isn't it. All or fucking nothing.
You have decided that the public sector is too big, which it is, so get rid of all of it. You think the welfare state is too big, which it is, so get rid of all of it. You think the NHS, schools, tax, parliament, in fact fucking everything is too big so scrap it.
There is an inbetween. There is a happy medium.
The civil service. 1%? Could you please post a link to where you have got this bollocks from?
Thanks.
Stan. You are aware that there are certain professions that effectively only exist in the public sector and that certain public sector professions are actually needed to balance out the private? Some people don't have much of a choice.
And we aren't libertarians because its 'trendy' (by the way, it isn't, it has a poor reputation in the real world because of the hard anarcho-capitalists who make it some extremist burn it all down bullshit in the eyes of the public), we just are. I'm much more of a classical liberal and have been for a number of years, well before a vacuous bullshit made up land called blogging.
Seems the problem with "libertarianism" is that it’s too broad a label. Just because I don’t want the government going through my trash and telling me what I can and cannot do to my own body and on my own property, doesn’t mean it’s a good idea to burn down Westminster, put razor wire around my place and blow the head off of anyone who sets foot on my land.
However, purely libertarian groups tend to get hijacked by anarchists and whenever an established political party entices libertarians into the fold, they’re suffocated.
What the fuck to do eh?
John/Kevin.......how can you rail against a system and take yourself seriously...or expect to be taken seriously when you are very much part of said system......
To nail your Libertarian flag to the mast while being part of the state machine at the same time as complaining your boss got a better pay rise than you is pure hyporasy...live as you preach....
If your not part of the solution your part of the problem .....i believe.
Dont you get it ...the host has run out of blood.
Satn, not quite sure you get that we are two people. I don't work with John, I don't know his boss, I didn't write the article.
'The state machine'. No. I am not part fo the 'state machine' as you so ball achingly put it.
Any state needs a public sector. It's called fact of life. You want your bin collected, who do you think does that? You have bin men, you have bin managers, you have the accounts team, you have the resources team, you have the strategy team. That goes for most parts of the public sector.
I am not a smoking cessation officer.
There are too mnay public sector jobs that contribute nohting and are not needed, fine. But that doesn't meant he enetire public sector should be scrapped.
Proposal: Scrap legal aid. Great you may think, except that you now have most people devoid of any power within the legal system. You have low earning people that cannot defend themselves in court being deprived of legal advice. The democracy of the British leagl system no longer functions, let alone the right to Counsel.
Are all the people that provide that service part of the 'state machine'?
Social workers. They are backed up by family lawyers. Are they part of this machine?
Do you have any idea how many people it takes to run a council tax department? Or any tax for that matter. Most local Councils are on a bare bones diet (not all, namely Labour).
You are attacking the system of waste, as we do, endemic in Whitehall yet we see the shades fo grey, you don't. You see black and white. You want to bring it all down, we don't.
I also want to work in a profession that best serves people by being in the public sector, that's my motivation for doing it.
"If your not part of the solution your part of the problem .....i believe."
That doesn't even make fucking sense pal.
Shmo hits the nail squarely on its headpiece.I'm sick and tired with this extremist shit hijacking every fucking ounce of pragmatism.
Mr B is spot on, and I thank Joe Schmo for his intelligent comments.
Libertarianism is given a bad name by some of the bullshit that gets bandied around by people at times.
Ha ha ha ha ...Kevin i apologise for refering to you both but you seem to speak as one voice..
As for being an extremist..ha ha ha what utter bollocks your talking man..is anyone who does not agree with you or your friends an extremist
As i already mentioned as you did ,there is a place for some public sector workers and i agree their is far too much waste
I wasn`t waffling about lawyers ect or
bringing down the whole system...
My main point is that to rant and wail about your boss getting a ¨huge¨tax payer funded pay rise when you yourself are getting a ¨mildly better than expected¨tax payer funded pay rise is in my view hypocritical....and that does not make me an extremist..
Ok chap!
Stan, no offence, but you are an absolute fucking idiot.
Show me where I complain about my (very modest) pay increase in my article?
That wasn't the point. The point is, there's no money for any increases - I am happy I got one at all. But there's an obvious FUCKing difference you fucking tool, between 2% for the proles, and 20% for the top.
It is against what Labour is supposed to be about (making the elites richer and everyone else held down wasn't exactly a founding principle of that party) and it is gross larceny and evidence of the hypocrisy of 'progressive' liberals.
Where is the hypocrisy in my piece? Please show it to me, with logic and fact. I can't see it myself. Maybe, because it doesn't exist. You fucking bell end.
And people here seem to have fucking made up their fucking minds that my fucking public sector job falls outside of the fucking definition of what a valid and acceptable fucking public sector job is.
When none of you cunts have the foggiest idea what I do or who I serve.
So before cunts here decide to rule me as unlibertarian or against libertarian principles, remember this: you have a fact free basis for doing so, and a shaky understanding of libertarianism.
I suggest you read more and educate yourselves properly, notwithstanding improving ones skills in spelling, punctuation and grammar. You ill-informed cunts.
Obo:
"...but an extremist libertarian could quite easily argue that every single member of the public sector is unequivocally a drain on the economy."
What sort of bullshit point is this?
An extremist anything/anyone could argue pretty much any random weird, fucked up useless point. And? So what. An extremist Nazi would argue all black and brown people are mud and scum. So...they should be listened to, should they?
Sorry, but there's no valid argument in describing all or 99% of public sector workers as a drain. There are clear and obvious examples, if you can be FUCKED to sit down and work them out, of public sector jobs that are valid, beneficial, worthwhile and necessary from a libertarian/classical liberal perspective.
I doesn't help that I'm not going to say how and why I consider my job to fall into this bracket, but that's the way it has to be, so either consider me a bullshitter or take my word for it.
Any more useless comments, feel free to pose them in your own Clowny way.
Cheers.
Cunt.
I'm still waiting for Obo to show me where 95%-99% of the public sector is pointless.
Because that's quite a claim dear clown.
Stan, your comments read as extreme mate, I suggest you re-read them. Talking about anyone (and it is anyone because you have no idea of the job you are attacking)in the public sector as parasites is pretty near the exeme end is it not.
"An extremist Nazi would argue all black and brown people are mud and scum. So...they should be listened to, should they?"
But John, their country, their rules.
Ah, yes, of course Mr Boatang. The ultimate Obo the Clown unequivocal Libertarian guding principle, as followed by all members of the Motherfucking Country Club of Libertarian Blogging.
'Their 'X', their rules.'
Technically, under Weimar democracy, Adolf Hitler became the legitimate leader of Germany. As it transpired, the Third Reich ended up 'belonging' to him, so to speak.
So, in effect, under Cunt Face's ideology, it was indeed, Hitler's place, Hitler's rules.
Which means, under 'libertarian' logic, as espoused by the Country Club and others, Hitler was within his rights to butcher Jews and asocials by the million.
Because, like, they should have known that they weren't wanted and to stick around mean't playing by...Hitler's rules. If that meant dying with a bullet in the head or a lung full of Zyklon B, so be it.
Fucking idiots.
Looks like while on one end the politicians are raping the country, in the other end the top Mandarins are doing the same in the other :)
Probably Sir Gus thought this was the right time to introduce civil service hikes for him and his buddies while the politicians are bitching at each other. Ohh well, Sir Arnold and Sir Humphrey would be proud!! How the hell did the Treasury approve this???
Any road, congrats on the meagre pay rise, something is better than nothing I reckon.
JD you should realise that the Jews, gypsys, gays, communists etc should have taken out a civil action against Hitler to agree compensation for their loss.
What I do take issue with is the copyright on the Zyklon B. It should have been free to all to replicate as they saw fit.
Mahesh, it's amazing what they will approve mate. Quite what warrents such a massive pay increase we can only guess at.
Still, good to see the heavyweight evidence that 99% of all public sector workers are pointless.
John...If you insist on being El Top Dogs bitch then you have to except the scraps that are throw to you...
As you claim to be a union man and a libertarian why not vote against ANY! tax payer funded pay rises on the grounds that....
GREAT BRITAIN = ON VERGE OF BANKRUPTCY
UNEMPLOYMENT = RAMPANT
STANDARD OF LIVING = FALLING
COST OF LIVING = RISING
TAXES = RISING
STRENGTH OF THE POUND = FALLING
THE PEOPLE = FUCKED
You were happyish with your pay rise ..until you found out El Top Dog was getting more..que rant...que hypocrisy..
Being happy with your pay rise and being astounded at the massive pay rise of someone else is not hypocrisy Stan. And JD has already explained that he was happy with no pay rise, he simply looked at what was offered. Which is all anyone can do.
Oh, but you should quit! Yeah, nice one. Perfect time to quit on moral priniciple.
And learn to fucking write and spell.
Fuck sake.
Kevin...i did not suggest John should quit
Perhaps John can speak for himself...
Ok chap
Hahahahaha! You fuckers are really tense, aren't you?
It's easy for me to justify my argument that 95%+ of the public sector are a drain on the economy because 95% of "public" services should be privately provided. The only public services which should be provided are those which have externalities that make them impractical to deliver privately, such as funding non-toll roads, trash collection and the military.
You don't need to employ more than 1% of the population to do these things, and since the public sector employs 20% of the population, it's fairly easy to see that 95% of the public service does not need to be funded by the taxpayer.
I'm not saying that all the services provided by the public sector don't need to be delivered (although who needs a fucking British Potato Board or Yorkshire RDA, etc?) but they definitely do not all need to be provided by the state and funded by the taxpayer.
Stan
provide me with evidence of any sound basis, ideological, philosophical, or otherwise, that union membership is incongruent with Libertarianism and Unionism, and we'll talk.
Till then, I'm probably going to ignore you, because you are either too stupid or too much of a troll to waste my time on.
The fact is, one can be a Libertarian and a Union member, and it would be FUCKING DAFT to combine with other workers in a Union, for the purposes of campaigning AGAINST better pay and conditions.
Daft right wing fuckers.
John..hello again
i have not suggested that union membership is incongruent with libertarianism...maybe it is ..maybe it isnt..
What i have suggested is that being outraged by one persons tax payer funded pay rise whilst pocketing your own ¨modest¨ tax payer funded pay rise is hypocrisy..
and listing the many reasons why it is an outrage is hypocrisy while still pocketing your own tax payer funded monies....
Do you get my drift...
No
You are saying that to accept any form of payrise ever, is hypocrisy.
How is this so? Are libertarians who work in the public sector all hypocrites? Do they act immorally, every time they remain in employment come the yearly pay review? Under your logic, I would only NOT be a hypocrite, if I insisted on not accepting any pay award ever. Which is fucking ridiculous.
You don't appear to see my point. I would suggest re-reading the piece, but I fear this won't make much difference.
1) I am happy with, and didn't even expect, the very very small increase I was awarded (along with the vast majority of colleagues).
2) I am unhappy with the monumentally huge, inflation destructing, inexplicable pay award given to the person who runs the joint. It is excessive. In times of recession, where jobs are going and pay is frozen, it is not morally acceptable or appropriate to give someone close to 30 fucking G by way of a pay rise.
I'd have thought the basis of my point to be reasonable and sound.
You have decided to turn it into a ludicrous, fatuous and farcical argument about the moral worth and necessity of any public sector workers, wherever, whenever, for whatever.
If I wanted to talk to a loon, I could quite easily find some such people on the mean streets of our capital. I moved here for a reason. And now they harangue me on the net.
Fuckers.
John....i dont think you can be a real Libertarian whilst sucking off the teat of the state...
The private sector is more than capable of doing most if not all of the work the state does ...and would do it much better in most cases..and people could spend the money they have earned on what they want...
You talk of enriched allies..JOHN YOU ARE ONE OF THE ENRICHED ALLIES..even if modestly enriched...
Good luck...good night..to you both.
"You talk of enriched allies..JOHN YOU ARE ONE OF THE ENRICHED ALLIES..even if modestly enriched...
Good luck...good night..to you both."
OK, mate, call the Valet in on your way out, won't you. I want Martini Cocktails and canapes to celebrate my long established enrichment.
Cheerio.
The "State Machine" is fucking rampaging out of control in my job, you lot don't know the half of it!
In case you haven't guessed I'm in the Fire Brigade (I still can't bring myself to call it a "service"), and in the last 10 years of this leftie fuckwit government, there has been a rise of 41% nationally in support, managerial and office based staff, but a decrease of 3% in the numbers of operational(water squirters) staff. I'm in a semi-rural Brigade, and we have a massive HR department, Media and PR department, and an Equality and Diversity department to give any Labour council a run for their money! Our head gang have all got high 5 figure/low 6 figure salaries, and all have grand sounding job titles- they wouldn't demean themselves with having anything to do with "Fire" in their job title.
Like all the public sector, we have got to cut costs. Take a guess where they are cutting jobs? You've probably guessed it- they've proposed closing 2 retained stations, and cutting the number of firemen riding appliances in the city.
They have forgotten what the Fire Brigade is actually for- they think it is to be run as a business.
Let me ask a simple question. If your house is on fire, who do you want to turn up? The Corporate Communications Director? The Head of Fire Service Equality, Diversity and Fairness at Work Directorate? The Human Resources Manager? This is the state that 12 years of crappy socialism has left us in. John, if your department is half as bad as mine, I pity you!
TFS
Better not upset Obnoxio The Cunt - he'll only go ahead and publish your addresses and phone numbers!
Twisted Fire Stopper:
I thank you for your very interesting post. Nice to see other like minded people out there with similar stories, though of course I'd rather none of us had any of these stories...
I am of course not surprised about how your place is organised and prioritised. This is the New Labour era way of things.
Obo, again, some back up please.
95% of public services could be provided by the private sector? Like what? Give me some examples, show me the money.
The public sector is bloated, but the main reason for that is, like Mr Twisted pointed out, because of a huge increase in back room staff. There is actually a huge shortage of people like social workers for instance.
I'm not arguing for the status quo, simply a reduction rather than a total massacre. Most of that reduction is in central government, I would also lose all the regional rubbish.
I've given up trying to work out whether what I do is a net gain or loss to the economy.
I've been here for the past three years helping build ISIS TS2 and the overall cost has been about 150mil of your tax pounds.
Now most of the building and the specialist equipment therein has been bought from private companies -many of whom are in the UK. Is the money those companies make 'false' because it originated from public funds? If their only dealings are with us, and if they would cease to trade if our place shut, then probably yes. Otherwise, if they are a going businesses concern who can develop their product line and experience by their association with us, and further penetrate into the high-tech/science (public or private) market on the international stage, then maybe we're generating real growth.
Separately, as a working facility we are possibly adding value to the economy like so:
(real example)
Unilever want to refine production processes of detergent.
Unilever sets up Phd studentship for research into said processes.
University sets up research and books time at our place.
Experiments are done
Findings are published
Unilever find out that they can fiddle with temperature settings and save 3mill a year.
I've discussed it all before but I don't know if places like this can be privatised and retain the same function. There certainly isn't any equivalent private facility yet. Whether this is due to public money crowding out private scientific investment, I don’t know.
We are a relatively tiny part of the civil service so I doubt anyone cares, but I have acquired a bit of ‘Atlas Shrugged’ guilt about everything I do.
Speaking of money - can anyone lend me a tenner?
20 per cent pay rise just to buy one man's vote.
Eh?!
What are you on about, anon?
Can't you see beyond the notion of one to one bribery? This is about something far bigger and widespread. The entrenchment of a strata of loyal, politicised people. Liberal leftists, who have been handed the reins to all of the country's moral and cultural citadels, not to mention political ones.
That big money will keep these loyal allies in place I dare say, is a huge bonus.
If you're making 50 to 100K a year, I doubt you'd be too fussy about what effect your work is having on the lives of the people in the scope of your remit and what the consequences outside that might be.
And that's one of the aspects that's seldom mentioned and which really concerns me.
If you look on each public service remit and its corresponding interest group, how is the effect of one upon another evaluated?
The short answer is that it fucking isn't.
Every government department and official body seems to work in isolation and there's almost zero cohesion and collaboration.
Oh absolutely
there are randomised fiefdoms, all working apart, but with people that have similar attitudes to politics and society.
Most civil servants I have met have been on the extreme left or the liberal left.
The civil servants I meet are whatever I fucking bellow at them to be.
They're all Aspergers cases anyway.
Pretty much.
JD (2 posts ago)
FFS - A stratUM
Call-me-Dave is right about the state of edukayshunn in this cuntry.
Be that as it may:
Couldn't agree more with you and the Clown (member of cuntry club or no) re civil service.
Post a Comment