tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2215553202978284468.post5200644640249702613..comments2024-02-06T16:17:25.826+00:00Comments on THE GRØNMARK BLOG: I witnessed - and benefited from - the birth of public sector wage inflationScott Gronmarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15118026157459333174noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2215553202978284468.post-12779554554117933802011-10-18T18:40:32.502+01:002011-10-18T18:40:32.502+01:00The Seventies were a strange time, Southern Man – ...The Seventies were a strange time, Southern Man – the attitude you describe seemed to be utterly standard wherever there was heavy unionisation: a terrifying foretaste of what it would be like to live under a proletarian dictatorship. What’s surprising about it, looking back, is that the British – a fair and reasonable people – allowed themselves to behave in such an unattractive fashion for so long. Nowadays, nurses and police officers – whom we all worshipped back then – appear to have picked up the mantle of rudeness, unhelpfulness and laziness. And maybe that’s not so surprising, because their pay has increased massively, their hours have shrunk and they still have jobs for life – and those seem to be the main drivers producing poor service, rather than long hours, poor pay and job insecurity! <br /><br />Harumphrey, I’m sure public sector pay and the number of bureaucrats rocketed under Labour – after all, almost everyone in the public sector voted for them – but I detected a sense, towards the end of Thatcher’s reign, that the Wet wing of her party were embarrassed by the overwhelming nature of their victory over the unions (remember Francis Pym saying that a large Tory general election victory would be unhealthy?). For instance, money started pouring into the BBC despite the fact that it spent most of the 1980s acting as Her Majesty’s Official Opposition. What happened at the BBC from 1987 or so onwards proved you could bite the hand that fed you and get away with it!<br /><br />As for the old news types – Some of them took early retirement, others went to Sky, others just blobbed along for years, apparently unsackable, never being promoted, never getting the glamorous jobs: some were so efficient and sensible, getting rid of them would have been ridiculous – disasters tended to happen when there weren’t any old hands around.<br />Thursday, February 24, 2011 - 05:23 PMScott Gronmarkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15118026157459333174noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2215553202978284468.post-82325422041187555942011-10-18T18:40:14.786+01:002011-10-18T18:40:14.786+01:00I always assumed the rapid shrinkage of public/pri...I always assumed the rapid shrinkage of public/private sector pay differentials began in earnest after Labour’s ’97 victory with the forging of closer ties between the two sectors thanks to PFIs and the expansion of high level bureaucratic jobs in Blair’s Britain. Nice to hear the BBC was spending our licence fees wisely. By the way, what happened to all the old news types when the Bright Young Things invaded? From what you say, it doesn’t seem to have affected you adversely…or were you a BYT?<br />Sunday, February 20, 2011 - 10:45 PMHARUMPHREYnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2215553202978284468.post-55550012144108098622011-10-18T18:39:55.582+01:002011-10-18T18:39:55.582+01:00In the mid 70's I got a job as a porter/drive...In the mid 70's I got a job as a porter/driver in the NHS.Coming from the private sector, digging roads and laying cables, what my Irish friends called 'ground-work', it was difficult to believe that such a cushy little number could be had for the asking and with job security too.<br />When the head cook was'nt supplying the local 'greasy spoons'with NHS supplies he would join the 4 other porters for three card brag or poker in their lodge as exclusive and protective as any Gentleman's Club.Once in a while a polite request would come for wheelchair assistance or whatever,and this had to be a very ,very polite request indeed as we woz unionised see,and it would be more than their jobs worth to take diabolical liberties with us.<br />The union was'nt for me and thank God I left otherwise I would have grown into one of those comfortable armchairs in the porter's lodge.<br />Friday, February 18, 2011 - 07:40 AMSOUTHERN MANnoreply@blogger.com