"Council workers vote for strike"

Brendan Barber really is a bit of a twat:

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber argued: "Our economic difficulties are caused by reckless lending by bankers and current inflation comes from higher oil, food and commodity prices. "Asking low-paid and average earners in public or private sector jobs to make sacrifices when those who caused the difficulties continue to draw record bonuses breaches any test of fairness."

1. You can make up your own minds who's to blame for oil and food price rises, nobody's really sure. But, assuming that these rises result from global demand, we collectively have to accept that our standard of living will fall; the value of our labour, expressed in barrels of oil or bushels of wheat, has fallen and that is the end of that. Which is not to say that people aren't perfectly entitled to haggle up their own wages, but it is ultimately a zero sum game.

2. Now, I agree that "reckless lending" has contributed to our "economic difficulties", but not on the topic of "record bonuses"; if UK Bank plc has made £1m profit and keeps it as retained earnings, £300,000 corporation tax is due. If the bank pays it out as a bonus, then £476,950 income tax and NI is due, so in terms of filling the public coffers, these City chaps taking outrageous bonuses is A Good Thing, surely? Even better, those tax liabilities are being paid out of thin air - if UK Bank plc had done their accounts properly for the past couple of years, they would have noticed that there were no profits to pay out as bonuses!

3. An increase in public sector wages is paid via the taxes of private sector workers, so although he gives a nod to "average earners in private sector jobs", the majority of your pay rises will be borne by them.

4. And if he really felt for "average earners in private sector jobs", why are the unions threatening that "Everything from local government will stop - we are talking about bins, schools, council offices, environmental health inspectors - all those important services that local communities rely on". Isn't that demanding a disproportionate sacrifice from aforementioned "average earners in private sector jobs"?
- Posh people have big front gardens so they can live without weekly collections for a while, certainly a lot longer than people in flats.
- Posh people send their kids to private school anyway.
- Who gives a shit if council offices are closed? A bit of a bummer for yer welfare claimants, maybe?
- Threatening that "environmental health inspectors" will stop - oooh! I'm really scared now!

Twat.