PCS Spending Challenge response
Responding to the ideas shortlist on the government’s Spending Challenge website, PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said:
“This sort of public engagement exercise is designed to reinforce the message from the millionaires in the Cabinet that ‘we are all in it together’, while they plot 25-40% cuts which will adversely affect the most vulnerable in society, attack public services and drastically increase unemployment.
“Ideas such as putting prisoners on treadmills to generate electricity and using bounty hunters to track down benefit cheats are only slightly more ridiculous than the coalition government’s proposals to burden an overstretched and under-regulated charity sector with its Big Society programme, closing courts, attacking benefits and talking about localism while scrapping the Government Office Network.
“There is an alternative way to tackle the deficit by collecting £123 billion in evaded and avoided taxes, investing in public services and creating jobs.”
ENDS
Notes
– For information and interview requests, contact PCS journalist Dave Tilley on 020 7801 2744 or 07856 110198
– The Public and Commercial Services union represents civil and public servants in central government. It has more than 300,000 members in over 200 departments and agencies. It also represents workers in parts of government transferred to the private sector. PCS is the UK’s fifth largest union and is affiliated to the TUC. The general secretary is Mark Serwotka and the president is Janice Godrich
– Follow PCS on Twitter Twitter
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