PCS strike (From The Northern Echo)

PCS strike

10:14am Thursday 11th March 2010 in

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IF there really was a God, don’t you think He’d find some way of replacing the likes of honest, conviction-politicians, such as the late Michael Foot, in Parliament?

Hell will freeze over before that happens with today’s political climate being littered with spin-doctoring, string-pulling and nodding-dog MPs.

Listening to Cabinet Office minister Tessa Jowell commenting on Monday on the strike by the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union – which came as a direct result of the Government tearing up legitimate contracts relating to compensation schemes without a ballot in Parliament – made me reach for the sick-bag.

She said only one in five members voted for the strike, conveniently omitting that only one in ten members voted against it.

Every member had a vote, but just as when it comes to electing politicians these days most people decided not to bother voting – a real indictment on the present political state of Britain.

What Ms Jowell didn’t realise is that the low percentage of union members who did vote merely reflects what happens in local government elections.

But worse than that, any contemporary national British government is only actually elected by about one in ten voters (the same as voted against the PCS strike). Is there a hidden message there somewhere?

Derek W Hall, Hartlepool