Todays strikes.

[Jace]

Here's an analogy:

* Child's foster parent gives child lots of sweets, which the child enjoys a lot.

* Child gets obese, to the point where he is ill and gets moved to another foster parent

* New foster parent stops giving child lots of sweets. Child is very unhappy because he's used to getting lots of lovely sweets.

Obviously the child is the public sector and the foster parents are the two governements.

The Labour foster parent has fed the public sector child lots of sweeties and he's got too fat!

It is the Coalition foster parents responsibility to slim the fat, spoilt public sector child down before it all goes badly wrong.

Especially when the sweets are provided by the fat child's private sector classmates from sweety tax revenue!

Here is another interpenetration of why public sector workers are on strike

* public sector child (who is over 67 years old btw) pays for sweets for 45 years at an agreed price so when they are too old to work they can eat the sweets to live.

* Sweet seller who has taken payments for sweets turns round and decides despite public sector child paying for all these sweets we are only going to give you half the sweets because we are going to sell the rest of the sweets you have paid for to pay off our debts

[Guest MattP]

It's pathetic to be honest, I'm still yet to hear a good reason why the private sector should be paying even more to not only subsidise our own pensions but the public sectors as well? The public sector workers pay not a penny in taxs in real terms. Every penny they pay in taxes is just the recycled money someone else has paid and that the state is broke because of the vast unjustifiable pay rises they've been given on the past decade and it really has fcuk all to do with bankers.

Read today that the average public sector wage including pension costs is 25% higher than the private sector, and they are going on strike for more?

Absolute shame on them, look at what they have to pay for a pension and see how much more it would cost them to buy it privately.

[Jace]

It's pathetic to be honest, I'm still yet to hear a good reason why the private sector should be paying even more to not only subsidise our own pensions but the public sectors as well? The public sector workers pay not a penny in taxs in real terms. Every penny they pay in taxes is just the recycled money someone else has paid and that the state is broke because of the vast unjustifiable pay rises they've been given on the past decade and it really has fcuk all to do with bankers.

Read today that the average public sector wage including pension costs is 25% higher than the private sector, and they are going on strike for more?

Absolute shame on them, look at what they have to pay for a pension and see how much more it would cost them to buy it privately.

So a dinner lady on £5000 a year is put in the same pay bracket as a senior consultant on £250,000 a year because they are on a public sector wage which is 25% above private sectors? bit too general isn't it Matt to use this a statistic like that? I do agree with you about the bankers the blame shouldn't be shifted onto them either the global debt crisis was not caused by a few senior executives who had a big bonus like I've heard a few people say

[Leicfox]

If this were a communist state (which if the unions had their way, it would be!)then you'd all be flogged or packed off to the gulags for failing to contribute to the greater good.

[Webbo]

So a dinner lady on £5000 a year is put in the same pay bracket as a senior consultant on £250,000 a year because they are on a public sector wage which is 25% above private sectors? bit too general isn't it Matt to use this a statistic like that? I do agree with you about the bankers the blame shouldn't be shifted onto them either the global debt crisis was not caused by a few senior executives who had a big bonus like I've heard a few people say

I think the operative word was average Very few of us are on £5k or £250k. Bit of a silly comparison.

[I am Rod Hull]

Public: "Leave our money!! Stop cuts!!! Let's go on strike!!!"

Tories: "We need to make cuts to pay off the debt. Otherwise we'll go bankrupt, and won't be able to afford anything"

Public: "BOOOO!! Conservatives out!!"

EDL: "It's the pakis fault"

Me: "This country is so fvcked"

But it`s still the best...

[Alexikokopops]

I think the operative word was average Very few of us are on £5k or £250k. Bit of a silly comparison.

It depends which measure of average is use. Pay distribution is such that the standard mean gives too high a representation - it gets skewed by the relatively few high earners at the top. For instance, looking at the distribution of personal wealth in the US, the mean is $61k. This is massively higher than the bulk of people earning between roughly $15k and $40k, as well as the median of $48k.

I don't really care about strikes. I just like chatting stats.

[Trav Le Bleu]

Mean, median or mode average?

I still remember some mathes! (I think)

[Alexikokopops]

Mean, median or mode average?

I still remember some mathes! (I think)

Which is the modal category in the graph above? There are 10 house points on offer for this.

[Trav Le Bleu]

Which is the modal category in the graph above? There are 10 house points on offer for this.

Have you been to Jeremy Paxman's new restaurant? It's a bit expensive... I mean, a starter for 10!

[Finnegan]

It's pathetic to be honest, I'm still yet to hear a good reason why the private sector should be paying even more to not only subsidise our own pensions but the public sectors as well? The public sector workers pay not a penny in taxs in real terms. Every penny they pay in taxes is just the recycled money someone else has paid and that the state is broke because of the vast unjustifiable pay rises they've been given on the past decade and it really has fcuk all to do with bankers.

Read today that the average public sector wage including pension costs is 25% higher than the private sector, and they are going on strike for more?

Absolute shame on them, look at what they have to pay for a pension and see how much more it would cost them to buy it privately.

Striking to not have drastically less is not the same as striking to have more.

At the end of the day it's pretty obvious what's going on, the government has spent billions it doesn't have bailing out banks that shot themselves in the foot. Under the threat of further recession it's desperately looking for further cuts and public sector pensions make a tidy starting point because, admittedly, it is a fairly strong package.

So you threaten enormous cuts, you start a propaganda attack on the public sector, you convince the country that these selfish civil servants are a drain to us all and you attack their conditions of work.

Oh, but, yknow, a year or so down the line you then start to wonder why we've not got enough nurses and teachers and fuck knows what else all over again.

[Jace]

I think the operative word was average Very few of us are on £5k or £250k. Bit of a silly comparison.

You are contradicting yourself abit here because both jobs will be taken into account with that average thats why its a poor statistic to use. The majority of public sector workers on strike today are the low paid under £21000 a year surely the average should be looking at their pay and not the high earners? Think about it....

[Webbo]

Which is the modal category in the graph above? There are 10 house points on offer for this.

$15k-$19,999?

Am I right?

[Webbo]

Oh, but, yknow, a year or so down the line you then start to wonder why we've not got enough nurses and teachers and fuck knows what else all over again.

I'll bet you a pound to a pinch of shit that we don't have any shortage of teachers or nurses in the next 10 years.

[Bert]

This bloke does.....

http://m.youtube.com/index?desktop_uri=%2F&gl=GB#/watch?v=J0SPio6RE-s

[Trav Le Bleu]

I'll bet you a pound to a pinch of shit that we don't have any shortage of foreign teachers or nurses in the next 10 years.

[Finnegan]

[Father Ted]

We need to start taking a more Thatcher like approach towards trade unions again.

[Alexikokopops]

$15k-$19,999?

Am I right?

WEBBO FOR MOD!

[Leicfox]

Could I suggest you start talking to YOUR MPs about foriegn aid and the increase to the EU budget. Perhaps if there were not so many EU residents taking money back to there own country and not spending it in the UK every year and forcing unemployment figures up this country may not have been in the mess it is today. :ph34r:

[Babylon]

I've not had a pay rise for 3 years, I don't throw my dummy out because I've seen a lot of people lose their jobs and I know my company cannot afford to pay any more out than it currently is. I'm just happy to have a steady wage and I cut back my own expenditure to help with rising costs. If I don't like it, I can always leave can't I.

I don't get a company pension either and to get anything like the public sector I would have to pay in a ridiculous amount into a scheme I'm not even guaranteed to get anything from when I'm allowed to retire at 98 years old.

So boo ****ing hoo, cry me a river with your annual pay rises, early retirements and guaranteed pensions. The country is your employer and we can't afford it, so take the hit like most other average Joes in the private sector. We're not all bankers on £1m bonuses, most of us get wages a lot lower than most of you.

And don't give me "our wages aren't that good". I know a bloody primary school teacher on 32k a year... she shows kids how to count ****ing apples and stick pasta and shells to coloured paper for a living.

Oh and the bus was full of sodding kids today, so get back to work because they piss me off.

[The Guvnor]

Such an emotive subject if you work in the Public sector then you will be sympathetic private sector you will be anti.

I have been a Fire fighter for 28 years and have paid 11% of my wages every month since I joined,pay freeze for the past two years so feeling the pinch like everyone else.

What really pee's me off is the constant spin from the gov't saying why should tax payers foot the bill,which stirs up this mass hysteria of hatred. Well guess what I'm a friggin tax payer and so are all the other ps workers who will be genuinely worried about their future.

[NorthernFox]

I've not had a pay rise for 3 years, I don't throw my dummy out because I've seen a lot of people lose their jobs and I know my company cannot afford to pay any more out than it currently is. I'm just happy to have a steady wage and I cut back my own expenditure to help with rising costs. If I don't like it, I can always leave can't I.

I don't get a company pension either and to get anything like the public sector I would have to pay in a ridiculous amount into a scheme I'm not even guaranteed to get anything from when I'm allowed to retire at 98 years old.

So boo ****ing hoo, cry me a river with your annual pay rises, early retirements and guaranteed pensions. The country is your employer and we can't afford it, so take the hit like most other average Joes in the private sector. We're not all bankers on £1m bonuses, most of us get wages a lot lower than most of you.

And don't give me "our wages aren't that good". I know a bloody primary school teacher on 32k a year... she shows kids how to count ****ing apples and stick pasta and shells to coloured paper for a living.

Oh and the bus was full of sodding kids today, so get back to work because they piss me off.

I work for Go North East in Gateshead (Buses). The metro train system were on strike, we ran duplicate services all day. Hardly anybody manned the picket lines, everybody went Xmas shopping at the Metrocentre, gridlocked our entire area and i'm completely knackered!

[Tielemans63]

I'm a teacher and I agree that we do get a generally good deal and that we have to take a hit like everyone else. I think for most teachers like me the issue is with the government's tactics - they are literally raiding our pensions instead of negotiating and agreeing a compromise - which contrary to what the media will tell you the unions have tried to do but have been rebuffed everytime.

Also just to clear up a couple of things, we do get a rise each year but that rise is significantly below inflation so effectively is not a rise - as this has been the case for 3 years that's ostensibly a loss.

The other thing is that a lot of people who retire from teaching at a relatively early age almost to a man will still be working in some capacity in another industry. The reason you don't get many 60+ teachers is that it's just about ****ing impossible to do this particular job in your dotage - by virtue of who you're teaching and the demands of the job (and I'm not intimating that other jobs are easy but until you've experienced teaching you cannot appreciate how physically & mentally draining it is). There's not that many completely retired teachers.

I'll do my bit and take a hit but be honest if your employer treated you with such contempt then you'd not be happy would you?

[Rincewind]

I don get any wage. If I could do a public sector job I would swap.

In security there was noone as far as I know negotiating for a higher wage. If I took a day off the company hiring the security firm would end the contract and sign another security firm to do the site. The guards would not be bothered.

The situation is not good for the workers and they are probably are being treated bad but workers do not have the power they did years ago and there are plenty of unemployed/overseas workers willing to do the shite jobs.

There are a lot of oversea students doing security work even though it is 12 hour shifts. There are quite a few who use the long hours at quiet sites to do their studying. Then they go to lectures the following day. It's an employers market.