Manifestos, Mandates and Mendacity

[bluewolf]

And one of the reasons why I left the NHS. Staff discussing whose turn it was for time off sick on full pay, and who was close to their 6 months off sick... people running a rota for sick holidays. And laziness! Crikey, it was a social club for some. Some were good grafters and some just took the pee. I got a gentle roasting from a senior engineer for spoiling the overtime by getting through so much maintenance work through the week. A minority but, as you said in an earlier post, quite often the management haven't got the guts to do something about it.

I'm not really interested in the wider debate, but what you've described there is not solely the preserve of the NHS. It's anywhere with a decent sick scheme.. My old employer provided a great sick scheme, and people abused it.. We had what was called "The Bro*****n fortnight" (not swearing, just don't want to mention the name of my ex employer). It was better to take 2 weeks off than it was to take 2 days off. It was expected, and you'd get abuse if you didn't take it.. Rota'd sickness, etc etc..

What you are describing is a minority of people who will attempt to take advantage of every facet of a contract, whomever they work for.. To level the complaint at the NHS is a bit unfair really..

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

And one of the reasons why I left the NHS. Staff discussing whose turn it was for time off sick on full pay, and who was close to their 6 months off sick... people running a rota for sick holidays. And laziness! Crikey, it was a social club for some. Some were good grafters and some just took the pee. I got a gentle roasting from a senior engineer for spoiling the overtime by getting through so much maintenance work through the week. A minority but, as you said in an earlier post, quite often the management haven't got the guts to do something about it.

I can wholeheartedly agree on that. But sometimes they just feel that they don't have the authority to manage. One of my wife's team has been signed off off by her GP for stress and anxiety - when in fact what has happened is that she has had disagreements over procedure with her immediately working colleague - it almost farcically funny - if it didn't load more work on the other three in the team for as long as she is off...

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

Anyway - will Osborne walk away from Tax Credit changes in the face of all the evidence presented that show how damaging it will be - and that he has got his sums wrong. Or will his vanity, pride and ambition cause him to carry on regardless. Does he actually care about what the electorate who voted Conservative, and hence for tax credit cuts as defined in the Tory manifesto (except they weren't), now think about these cuts?

 

[bluewolf]

Anyway - will Osborne walk away from Tax Credit changes in the face of all the evidence presented that show how damaging it will be - and that he has got his sums wrong. Or will his vanity, pride and ambition cause him to carry on regardless. Does he actually care about what the electorate who voted Conservative, and hence for tax credit cuts as defined in the Tory manifesto (except they weren't), now think about these cuts?

He'll push ahead with Tax Credit cuts.. It's a Conservative ethos to reduce the welfare state, then rely on tax cuts to stimulate economic growth and therefore job creation.. This will then pull everyone back into work and negate the reduction of the welfare dismemberment......

Unfortunately, this doesn't really work as it fails to take into account any sort of automation in the workplace.. What tends to happen is that the tax cuts are gleefully accepted by the 1%. They then use this "bonus" to retool the shopfloor and remove even more staff from the wage bill, therefore throwing even more people into a system that has already been taken apart..

In effect, it serves to hasten the entropy of a fully capitalist state.. Whether we like it or not, both sides of the debate require each other to balance out the failures in our own preferred system... This a bit of a simplistic view really, but I like simple..

 

[delc]

Isn't one of problems politicians who promise the Earth to get elected, but then fail to deliver the goods afterwards? We are always being promised jam tomorrow, but tomorrow never seems to arrive!

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

Isn't one of problems politicians who promise the Earth to get elected, but then fail to deliver the goods afterwards? We are always being promised jam tomorrow, but tomorrow never seems to arrive!

Osborne seems hell bent on providing the jam to some whilst taking away the bread from others. Thing is that many who gave Osborne the mandate to do what he is doing - didn;t realise that he do it to them - certainly not to the extent he's going to. Would they be upset if he 'failed' to deliver tax credit cuts? I don't think so. Be clear about the reasoning why he's not going to do it and I don't think he'll be too damaged - it might actually improve his image

 

[delc]

Osborne seems hell bent on providing the jam to some whilst taking away the bread from others. Thing is that many who gave Osborne the mandate to do what he is doing - didn;t realise that he do it to them - certainly not to the extent he's going to. Would they be upset if he 'failed' to deliver tax credit cuts? I don't think so. Be clear about the reasoning why he's not going to do it and I don't think he'll be too damaged - it might actually improve his image

If Osbourne does cut Tax Credits, there will have to be some people who become worse off, unless we can get full employment with decent rates of pay for all (fairly unlikely!). I note that Dave Cameron would not admit this when pressed by Jeremy Corbyn on the issue!