UNISON general secretary Christina McAnea, ABOVE, said: “This government gets the value of public services. Unlike its predecessors whose economic policies left schools, hospitals and councils in tatters.
“But failure to invest in essential services and staff at this critical time for the UK would be a false economy. Well-resourced essential services and workforces can help Rachel Reeves deliver vital growth.
“If the economy is to pick up from next year, as forecasts suggest, this must be translated into increased resources for under-pressure public services, beginning with June’s spending review.
“The chancellor’s been left with an unenviable task. The world has changed since the summer. But extraordinary times require bold solutions. With so little wriggle-room, the chancellor should stop backing herself into a corner with fiscal rules and borrow more to invest.
“Cuts to welfare and attacks on those least able to support themselves are not the right way to deliver a thriving economy, nor good quality public services. The Office for Budget Responsibility doesn’t always get things right and forecasts change.
“The government has a plan to deliver growth for working people and must stick to it.”
Nothing will grow economically unless we as a country produce and invest..
Someone once said that investment in education is the best investment that there is. That I think we can all agree is true. Societies that invest in human capital and then invest in making their societies high producing in everything from production of goods and services that are then fairly distributed are successful societies.
But sadly in this country we are stripped bare. And it is getting worse. What do we make and or manufacture and when we do where does the money go.
Small countries like Norway, Dubai, Qatar with their oil and gas have been absolutely transformative. Norway, a near neighbour has one of the highest Human Development Index classifications on the planet. But look around the world at how other countries, once backwaters have come up as we go down.
Thatcher started the neoliberal transformation that privatised so much and under Starmer we now see how that neoliberal progression is playing out as the UK slides into economic decline.
Tge unions are right in calling for investment in social services but the issue is much much bigger than that. Much bigger and then some.
Funny old world but the the announcement of the closure of the steel plant at Scunthorpe, Britain will be the only country in the G7 that doesn’t manufacture steel.
Think about that for a minute. A proud country, standing tall, that doesn’t make steel.
Steel that is needed for cars, buses, construction, consumer goods, wind turbine towers, oil rigs, everything in fact and we ow don’t make steel.
But best if all where will we now get our steel for our naval ships, our nuclear submarines, our aircraft carriers, our tanks and even our military guns.
Think about it.