'Do you support Wednesday's strike?' poll

I have a few issues.

These strikes cause enormous disruption for other people - public/private both. But this also affects children and other services. I appreciate this is a consequence of strikes, but then...

The Union Leaders are telling people not to give notice of their participation in the strike. Normally a school gets 24 hours notice and can decide whether the school can open normally or not. But as they don't know who will be in school, they have to close the school just in case.

So now workers have to find child care or a day off work, and this turns a inconvenient strike into something a bit more malicious.

Effectively this is holding the country to ransom. Cuts are being made everywhere in the country. Even the shadow government agree they are needed. Why is it fair that a Union holds the country to ransom, gains their members an advantage, and the government then needs to move funds from elsewhere (if we're lucky), or just go into more debt because of it.

Finally, I have seen the leader of the Rail Workers Union on TV. What a tit. I'm sure he bullies more than negotiates. If that kind of person is responsible for these strikes, then that instantly degrades the message behind the strike to us people-in-the-street. For all I know, the union is being unreasonable and bullying the government.

So whether the cause is right or not, the perception by the rest of the populace is going to be negative due to the way it's being carried out.

I work in a school which is closed today although I am not on strike and will make up the hours that I am missing. I fully support the strike. Teachers work exceptionally long hours - they get to school hours before the children, stay hours after the children have left and work in the evenings and at weekends. None of them takes the holidays without coming in at some time to prepare lessons and classrooms. They have actually been told not to do any work from home today although I suspect most of them will still be doing so. For the training that they have done and the dedication that they show, they signed a contract for a salary and a pension scheme. The government has broken that contract.
If the government wants to bring in new contracts for future employees, then so be it. I fear for the quality of teaching staff and other public service professionals. The bright, dedicated people that we want in our public services will not work for the pittance that this government will offer. When there is a shortage of teachers, the government will be forced to rethink.

Dear Mr Cameron,

Please find below my suggestion for fixing the UK's economy.

Instead of giving billions of pounds to banks that will squander the money on lavish parties and unearned bonuses, use the following plan.

You can call it the Patriotic Retirement Plan:

There are about 10 million people over 50 in the work force.

Pay them £1 million each severance for early retirement with the following stipulations:

1) They MUST retire. Ten million job openings - unemployment fixed

2) They MUST buy a new British car. Ten million cars ordered - Car Industry fixed

3) They MUST either buy a house or pay off their mortgage - Housing Crisis fixed

4) They MUST send their kids to school/college/university - Crime rate fixed

5) They MUST buy £100 WORTH of alcohol/tobacco a week ...... And there's your money back in duty/tax etc

It can't get any easier than that!

P.S. If more money is needed, have all members of parliament pay back their falsely claimed expenses and second home allowances

If you think this would work, please forward to everyone you know.

Also………..

Let's put the pensioners in jail and the criminals in a nursing home.

This way the pensioners would have access to showers, hobbies and walks.

They'd receive unlimited free prescriptions, dental and medical treatment, wheel chairs etc and they'd receive money instead of paying it out.

They would have constant video monitoring, so they could be helped instantly, if they fell, or needed assistance.

Bedding would be washed twice a week, and all clothing would be ironed and returned to them.

A guard would check on them every 20 minutes and bring their meals and snacks to their cell.

They would have family visits in a suite built for that purpose.

They would have access to a library, weight room, spiritual counselling, pool and education.

Simple clothing, shoes, slippers, PJ's and legal aid would be free, on request.

Private, secure rooms for all, with an exercise outdoor yard, with gardens.

Each senior could have a PC a TV radio and daily phone calls.

There would be a board of directors to hear complaints, and the guards would have a code of conduct that would be strictly adhered to
.

The criminals would get cold food, be left all alone and unsupervised. Lights off at 8pm and showers once a week. Live in a tiny room and pay £600.00 per week and have no hope of ever getting out.

Think about this (more points of contention):

COWS
Is it just me, or does anyone else find it amazing that during the mad cow epidemic our government could track a single cow, born in Appleby almost
three years ago, right to the stall where she slept in the county of Cumbria?

And, they even tracked her calves to their stalls. But they are unable to locate 125,000 illegal immigrants wandering around our country. Maybe we
should give each of them a cow.

---

Also;

Think about this ... If you don't want to forward this for fear of offending someone -- YOU ARE PART OF THE PROBLEM! It is time for us grumpy old folk of
Britain to speak up!

There are several reasons why public sector pensions are in trouble;

People generally are living longer (although I have had two friends die this year before reaching pensionable age)
Gordon Brown robbed the pension funds by taking away tax relief. (This lead to the winding up of most final salary schemes in the private sector).
Local Authorities have used pension surpluses to fund early retirement for people over 50 (now over 55) when making redundancies
They are final salary based, but your contributions are based on current salary. Some people apply for promotion in their final years, and end up getting a pension that they haven't paid for.
Some schemes are non contributory and not funded, so the pensions are paid for out of current taxataion.

I work in Local Government, and I'm not supporting the strike. The Local Government schemes, although funded, are in deficit, and we need to pay more if we want to keep the generous pensions that we expect. The increase in contributions - from around 6% to 7% to about 8% to 10% - will keep these schemes affordable. Changing from a final salary scheme to a career average scheme is fair. I don't like the fact that after no pay rise for 2 years, I will have a pay cut of 3% next year to pay for the higher pension costs, but I'm realistic. We are all collectively living beyond our means, and we are all going to have to accept cuts in our standard of living. If we don't take drastic action to sort out the mess the country is in, then we may as well buy boiler suits now and start learning Chinese.