We are by now hopefully immune to the shroud waving from every corner of the public sector and the bleating that "Tory cuts will hurt the vulnerable most"*, but Labour leadership candidate Diane Abbot raises a rather more pressing issue:
Planned spending cuts could set back race relations by a generation and risk social "instability", Labour leadership candidate Diane Abbott has warned. The cuts could hit ethnic minorities and women harder than other groups, she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
And why might that be? Do ethnic minorities and women need more schools, or more policemen..?
Ms Abbott, who is seen as the most left-wing of the five candidates, warned that a "last in, first out" approach to redundancies would hit black and female workers particularly hard.
"Black (people) and ethnic minorities are predominantly employed in the public sector, particularly women**. My concern is that the progress black and ethnic minority workers have made in employment is relatively recent*** and if there have to be big cuts, it will be 'last in, first out' and these cuts will fall disproportionately not just on women but on black and ethnic minority workers. I think the public sector cuts have the potential to set back race relations and black and ethnic minority communities by a generation."
* Interestingly, over 40% of government spending goes to private sector businesses. Do they count as 'vulnerable'?
** 'Women' are neither necesarily 'black' nor 'ethnic minority', but it is quite true that about seventy per cent of people in public sector jobs are women.
*** As any fule kno, net immigration under New Labour was nearly as much as the increase in public sector employment. Whether this is a coincidence remains to be seen.
Tuesday, 14 September 2010
Diane Abbot veers dangerously close to the truth...
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4 comments:
It's utter bollocks MW. As I keep trying to explain to people, they will pension off all the folk in their late 50's/early 60's and not renew any temp contracts.
I'm sure DA probably believes her own bullshit, but that's all it is, bullshit. Plus she's taking a London-centric view. The ethnic minorities that will get hit the most are those that temp - the aussies, the kiwis and the saffers.
These cuts in general are terrible. I have friends who work for the local council who are having their salaries cut by £9000. You either have to accept and get a temporary pay freeze or appeal and not get the pay freeze.
GBL, it sounds as though your local council have decided to cut evertyone's salary rather than reduce the number of people employed. Given the relatively slow rate of spending reduction envisaged by the government, which could easily be met by "natural wastage", that implies that your local council is incompetent.
SL, whatever the truth of the matter, politicians always twist it.
The NF mantra was always "They're taking our jobs and our houses" which was untrue at the time and I never took it seriously.
The BNP are still saying this, and it is statistically proven that recent immigrants get priority for social housing (rightly or wrongly, I have no opinion on that).
But hasn't fatty Abbott just provided more evidence to support the BNP claim that "they're taking our jobs"? Whatever the rights and wrongs of this (perhaps BME and women are better workers), there does appear to be more than a shred of evidence to support the BNP's claim.
GBL, cut by £9,000? From what to what? Were working hours also reduced? I'd be interested to know.
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