PCS: Osborne’s plan for the economy is ‘vindictive and dangerous’
Speaking ahead of tomorrow’s (23 Mar) budget, Public and Commercial Services union general secretary Mark Serwotka said:
“The latest inflation figures are another timely reminder that, beyond the bubble of privilege inhabited by George Osborne and other millionaire cabinet members, real people’s living standards are under severe pressure.
“In these circumstances it is both vindictive and dangerous of the chancellor to drive our economy even further down, in a race to the bottom where public services are handed over to big businesses to rake in huge profits and hard-won employment rights are eroded to make it easier to victimise and sack workers.
“Instead of setting his sights on those who everyone now accepts did nothing to cause the recession and the budget deficit, Osborne should go after the real scroungers – the tax dodgers who deprive our public finances of tens of billions of pounds every year and the corporations who are hiking their prices above inflation and profiting from hardship.
“He should also accept that there is an alternative – one that hundreds of thousands of people will be marching for on Saturday (26 Mar) – that would see investment in our public services to help our economy to grow.”
PCS members will be joined by charity campaigners for a protest in Old Palace Yard, in Westminster, on budget day. The demo, which will include campaigners from anti-poverty charity War in Want and Jubilee Debt Campaign, will be held between 12pm until 2pm with main speeches by Mark Serwotka and PCS national president Janice Godrich and others around 1pm. Spokespeople from the organisations involved will also be available for interview.
Members of the union from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, will join the demo after marching from Defra headquarters, 17 Smith Square, London, to protest against compulsory job cuts in the Sustainable Development Commission – a move that the union says undermines the government’s claim to be the “greenest ever”.
Simon McRae, senior campaigns officer at War on Want, said: “If George Osborne wants to help people most in need through his budget he should crack down on the corporations and millionaires who dodge their tax obligations.
“While these dodges cost Britain up to £120 billion a year, many are facing savage cuts in public services and jobs. It is high time the government ended this scandal.”
ENDS
Notes
– For information and interview requests contact PCS national press officer Richard Simcox on 020 7801 2747 or 07833 978216
– 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, and in parts of government transferred to the private sector. PCS is the UK’s sixth largest union and is affiliated to the TUC. The general secretary is Mark Serwotka and the president is Janice Godrich
– Follow PCS on Twitter http://twitter.com/pcs_union
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