AA Roadwatch report major traffic jams in Newry as public sector workers go shopping.

[myksav]

so what you're saying is that PS is the civilising element of human society?????

not true, society developed...then PS came along to administer it.

contracts can be enforced by society shunning the offender....remember the "blacklisting" of wayward employees and companies back in the 50s and 60s...very effective punishment. thwarted by the public sector who decided that all corporate punishment be taken out of the community hands and into the PS.

as for Mad Max stuff.....lets compare crime rate and road death rate pre PS and nannystate taking over every facet of the citizens lives.
i'd rather have 1950s or 1970s level of govt interference (ie. limited and cheap) than this nanny state/myriad of authorities&quangos&rules&regulations

in fact, if 40% of the PS went on strike permanently (bar guards, firemen, hospital workers, road workers, teachers, postmen i.e. front line workers) the country would be immeasurably better off.

anyway...what meaningless quango do you get paid by?

+1

[Kevin Doyle]

What would happen if every private sector worker emigrated tomorrow morning? Would the public sector survive?

Yes, the PS do education, medical and law enforcement. Which are only three areas of the PS.
Is the education system excellent? Doesn't seem so.
Medical treatment via Public? Not great, long waits still, etc.
Law enforcement? Quite spotty that. If you need the police, you can't find them.

A lot of what makes people 'angry' or disgusted with the public sector is the massive inefficiencies in it. It is wasting our money. With that waste, there's little sympathy for that group to be hanging onto higher wages.
The private sector generates money through production, the public sector, through taxes.

Sure, the public sector pays taxes but the basic wage comes from taxes to start with.
A bit like filling a bowl of stew from a pot, then "taxing" by returning some of the stew to the pot without putting anything into the pot at the start.

It’s a circular argument. Both sectors are interdependent and rely on each other.

The rub is that tax payers do not get to tell PS workers how to do their jobs or even how much they get paid, that is Governments job and that’s where your anger should be focused, not some nurse run off her feet in a bureaucratic nightmare continuing under the nose of Mary Harney, or some teacher trying to instil knowledge into a bunch of rowdy teenagers and doing very well by international standards.

As for the police. Imagine this country without them.

[Gimpanzee]

I'm Alright Jack on the back foot on Matt Cooper now over this - very first question put to him....

[pd_phoenix]

I'm Alright Jack on the back foot on Matt Cooper now over this - very first question put to him....

must go listen, this should certainly be interesting, we should be able to gauge the publics true opinion of the strikes also

[Baron von Biffo]

i'd rather have 1950s or 1970s level of govt interference (ie. limited and cheap) than this nanny state/myriad of authorities&quangos&rules&regulations

You're in the wrong party Zakalwe1, Michael Noonan wants to regulate what clothes people wear and Charlie Flanagan would have the army on the streets to keep order

[Congalltee]

The rub is that tax payers do not get to tell PS workers how to do their jobs or even how much they get paid, that is Governments job .

Bit of a slip there. All public sector workers pay tax on the earnings of their labour.
They are, however, net beneficiaries of exchequer funds (or in the current climate beneficiaries of borrowed funds - which is why the total bill must be reduce).

[old westie]

Should the public sector not be shopping to day in Northern Irl when one thinks of who is forcing the agenda of cut public sector pay and pensions. IBEC,ISME,RGDATA,SFA are constantly demanding cuts to public sector pay and now is payback.It seems the public service is doing alot of its talking with its FEET.

[Kevin Doyle]

so what you're saying is that PS is the civilising element of human society?????

not true, society developed...then PS came along to administer it.?

Actually Unions and agitator groups civilised society, or at least the administration of it and yes the PS continues that tradition today. Without it we are back to feudalism and rule by who has the biggest stick.

contracts can be enforced by society shunning the offender....remember the "blacklisting" of wayward employees and companies back in the 50s and 60s...very effective punishment. thwarted by the public sector who decided that all corporate punishment be taken out of the community hands and into the PS.?

That’s a selective read of what happened. The regulation of companies is rightly under the remit of the PS not by what a mob decides. If you wish a return to that fine, but call it what it is.

And what you describe is not the enforcement of contracts, its naming and shaming and its effectiveness at the time was limited. It is totally inadequate for captive markets which would become the norm in a non PS regulated economy.

Receiving payment is only guaranteed by a legislative system, without it modern business as we know it would collapse, anyone who can’t understand that simple reality shouldn't be commenting on such. All of this was there in 50’s Ireland, it was the state that prosecuted you if you failed to pay bills or creditors.

as for Mad Max stuff.....lets compare crime rate and road death rate pre PS and nannystate taking over every facet of the citizens lives.
i'd rather have 1950s or 1970s level of govt interference (ie. limited and cheap) than this nanny state/myriad of authorities&quangos&rules&regulations

If you think that cutting gov expenditure to 50's levels will result in similar drop in crime your living in a fantasy land. You are forgetting that in the 50s those considered undesirable where spirited away to industrial schools and used as slave labour whilst being systematically abused. The Church had a vice grip hold on public opinion and anyone who wasn’t white and heterosexual had a particularly rough time in your idyllic Ireland. Take off the nostalgic blinkers. Crime has rocketed in Ireland due to the massive shift in inequality, and inequality that was not present in 50s Ireland.

in fact, if 40% of the PS went on strike permanently (bar guards, firemen, hospital workers, road workers, teachers, postmen i.e. front line workers) the country would be immeasurably better off.

And what pray tell do you base that on apart from your own impression of what an Irish utopia would look like.

[dotski_w_]

Bit of a slip there. All public sector workers pay tax on the earnings of their labour.

He didn't suggest otherwise - he simply stated that it wasn't taxpayers (public or private sector) who are the bosses of the PS, but the Govt (who in turn, of course, are answerable to us all via the democratic process).

[bokonon]

No. AA have now changed their page. I'm sure other posters can confirm that the details I posted was on their site earlier.

Someone emailed me a screenshot at 11:49 this morning: