Budget reveals damage to economy done by greed

UNISON general secretary Dave Prentis responded to Alistair Darling's budget by saying that it “revealed the extent of the damage done to the economy and public finances by the greed and irresponsibility of the under-regulated financial sector.”

And he noted: “Future spending plans have been revised down again and the government's best ambitions of reducing child poverty and building world class public services now look in doubt. He added that the union “will look for assurances that public service workers... will not be made to pay the price for the failures of others.”

Dave said: “The Chancellor is moving in the right direction with tax rises for the super-rich who have not been paying their fair share,” but he noted that Mr Darling “will need to do more to go after the rich tax avoiders who cost us more than £25 billion every year.”

Matt Smith, Scottish Secretary of UNISON told delegates at the Scottish TUC that the economic crisis must be paid for by fairer taxation, and more investment in public services. In a hard-hitting speech, Matt pointed out that the crisis has been caused by relying on a ‘get rich quick’ philosophy, and that the proponents of that philosophy are still arguing for the failed policies of deregulation and attacks on the public sector.

“The richest one per cent in our society have doubled their share of total income since the 1980s. Today, they pocket more money than the entire workforces of the NHS, state education and local government put together.

“And they pay back nothing like their fair share of tax. Almost £20 billion is lost from the money to pay for our services every year because of the use and abuse of “tax havens”. And he attacked the myth of overstaffed public services, saying that public sector workers “have made well in excess of 3% efficiency savings called for by the government over each of the past three years.

“Independent studies have shown that you cannot extract any more without damaging services for the public.” ..More on STUC pages

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