UNISON General Secretary, Dave Prentis, today condemned the zeal with which the Liberal Democrats ditched all their election pledges to gain a grip on power.
Speaking to UNISON activists in London, he said:
“It’s shameful the way the Liberal Democrats, desperate for power, eagerly ditched their principles and their election pledges. The people who will lose out will be the poor, the sick and the vulnerable.
“Already the new government of the rich and the right, with undisguised zeal, is plotting cuts way beyond anything that they talked of during the election campaign. They have immediately shown whose side they are on by increasing national insurance by 1% for the workers, but not for the bosses.
“Their £6bn of cuts will devastate local services – school building projects are to be abandoned and local government faces a harsh winter. Their claims that they will protect the NHS are disintegrating by the hour.
“They know that cutting public spending at this time will risk economic recovery. If you cut public sector jobs, you close off opportunities to the young and those made redundant by the private sector. If you cut public sector jobs, you damage local economies. For every £1 a public sector worker earns, they spend nearly 70p of it in the local economy – the local shops, the local hairdressers, local bars, local businesses.
“These cuts are neither necessary, nor desirable – it is a political decision driven by ideology, not compassion.
“The result of all this will be a growing disaffection amongst young people and social dislocation of the kind not seen since the poll tax riots.
“UNISON will work with local communities to lead the fight against the cuts to protect the sick, the poor and the vulnerable.”
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