Kurtspank
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Edited Jul 26, 2010, 19:46
Re: Public Sector Workers - Reality Check
Jul 26, 2010, 19:45
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How would a taxpayer decide whether or not they value the service delivered?
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Wiggy
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Re: Public Sector Workers - Reality Check
Jul 27, 2010, 10:57
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Yeah, they're taking us to Hell in a handcart.
As for "printing money" - how about a decent stab at redistribution instead (not saying that Blairs Tories in disguise did all that well on that front, but they had a go).
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Wiggy
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Re: Public Sector Workers - Reality Check
Jul 27, 2010, 10:59
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Do you work for one employer? Have you and your colleagues thought about joining a union? (not baiting you here, genuine question).
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Wiggy
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Re: Public Sector Workers - Reality Check
Jul 27, 2010, 11:02
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My partner works in learning difficulties services (but currently on sabbatical to complete Masters) - this is a sector becoming increasingly "privatised" and farmed out to charities. I can tell you now that you certainly do not get better value or service that way - you just get cheap!
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geoffrey_prime
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Re: Public Sector Workers - Reality Check
Jul 31, 2010, 02:53
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ok then...better for the taxpayer..
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Wiggy
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Re: Public Sector Workers - Reality Check
Aug 03, 2010, 01:06
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Not really GP - families of service users are also tax payers. You might as well say lets have cheap hospitals so long as I'm not ill!
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geoffrey_prime
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Re: Public Sector Workers - Reality Check
Aug 04, 2010, 01:50
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Hi, I know we can "toss this around" for ever...but hopefully, we both want the same thing...decent, honest, adequate, "valued" public services available to those who need them...at a cost to the taxpayer, that they agree represents "value for money".
I saw Cameron do a Q&A today with public sector workers in the Midlands...and I thought he conducted himself very well. Firstly, I thought at least he has the guts to do this - because it is essential. I have to say that I believe the audience understood the strategy Cameron is leading on...and although there were concerns..I thought the support for the government was there...and clearly.
So I am very happy with the de-centralist approach...dont dictate what local government does, but set out clear spending guidelines. Ensure that for the services central government must deliver, that the taxpayer gets the service at minimal cost. Ensure we have a choice on the voting system we use going fwd. to elect our reps.
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geoffrey_prime
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Re: Public Sector Workers - Reality Check
Aug 04, 2010, 01:57
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Are you a taxpayer? Think about it. Look in your paypacket..at your Council Tax bill etc.. Contrast with the "services" you receive... from central and local government...does it "add up"?
If you are of voting age, I would hope this kind of consideration is absolutely at the front of your cranium..
If you are a "voter"..what have you been voting on thus far?
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stray
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Edited Aug 04, 2010, 11:06
Re: Public Sector Workers - Reality Check
Aug 04, 2010, 11:05
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geoffrey_prime wrote: Are you a taxpayer? Think about it. Look in your paypacket..at your Council Tax bill etc.. Contrast with the "services" you receive... from central and local government...does it "add up"?
If you are of voting age, I would hope this kind of consideration is absolutely at the front of your cranium..
If you are a "voter"..what have you been voting on thus far?
I think, for a lot of us here, there is more to take into consideration when voting than our own personal interest. Some of us are capable of looking beyond ourselves and seeing how benefiting the many will directly benefit ourselves.
All that aside, you have failed to answer Kurtspanks question, in fact what you've said here doesn't even come close to addressing the question. Being a taxpayer doesn't mean you understand or appreciate any of the following; the real price of a service, or the real benefits and importance of a service. The idea of does it "add up" is always going to be a construct based on personal bias. Also in order to answer the questions 'What is the real price of a service' and 'what are it's benefits and importance' well.. these are questions we can only answer by asking people who know and are responsible for each service. In every case these people have their own agendas which skew the answers. These feed your own personal bias in coming to a decision over those two basic questions. I'm not even going to begin to start about how us taxpayers haven't the first fucking clue as to how we could identify that a lower cost service isn't being run by corner cutting profit driven cowboys. What I will say is it seems the government (local and national) has traditionally also been incapable of identifying such, and seems to allocate tenders purely on a lowest cost basis, irrespective of the fact that it would be impossible to run the service at the cost being tendered.
Since massive privatisation, in a lot of case, the people who set the budgets for and run the services are people who are not directly democratically elected by us. So therefore being a 'voter' is irrelevant, as we no longer have any direct influence on these two key decisions relating to our services anyway. Now yeah, yeah, the current government seems to be suggesting giving us democratic control back here, but the reality is it isn't. It's bollocks. It's window dressing. 'Small government' actually means less democratic control and less accountability in general, it always has done.
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geoffrey_prime
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Re: Public Sector Workers - Reality Check
Aug 09, 2010, 10:09
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This answer...and the prevous one you refer to, completely reinforces my recent conclusion, that you guys are on a "special planet"..and would be best left alone.
It's just waffle..
"How I would know..."..is ....by using the same judgement I apply when I receive any other "service"..
How do you know when someone has done a could job for you? - painted a wall, serviced the car, cleared out the moat etc etc?
I have worked in the Civil Service, Local Government and, for the last 20 years, in the private sector (Service industry)..so I know eaxactly what I am talking about.
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