Yup, you read that right… I find myself in agreement with a union; or at least in part agreement.
For once TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber hit the nail on the head when he got stuck into Labour at the TUC’s North West Conference this weekend for their attack on those earning the least in the UK, stating:
"Across the UK, people’s finances are being squeezed by rising food, energy and borrowing costs. And earlier this week, millions of low-paid workers were dealt a further blow by the abolition of the 10p tax rate."
Unfortunately he lost after that by arguing that, instead of simply reintroducing the 10p rate, Brown should reintroduce it whilst simultaneously ending the remaining tax breaks for non-doms.
Unions, ignoring practical realities since… well, always…
April 14th, 2008 at 6:00 pm
It isn’t so much that they ignore the practical realities (of the comparatively well off) but that they are paid to improve the practical realities of many of the least well off, and many of those still believe that taxing toffs who wear top hats and spats will mean they never have to work again, which, when one looks at those who have lived on benefits for most of their lives, seems to have more than a grain of truth to it.
One’s idea of practical realities tends to be shaped by one’s circumstances. The problems of running a farm in Tuscany while keeping another in England don’t loom large in the minds of those existing on sink estates offered the choice of sweating for the minimum wage or living ‘on the sick’.
Yours is one of my favourite blogs, by the way.