Update from London: “Day of Outrage” — and entitlement-mongering
Good morning, readers. It’s 11:30am here in London and that massive, multi-union strike I told you about the other day is now underway. My family had planned to visit Westminster today, but it’s off the table now. I get enough of the Big Labor mob scene back in the States. No need to expose the kids to it during their vacation.
Speaking of kids, hundreds of thousands of them have been abandoned by their public union teachers who refuse to contribute a smidge more to their pensions like most every one of their private-sector counterparts: “More than half of schools in England are closed or partially closed as hundreds of thousands of public sector workers strike over pension changes. The government said information from 75% of its 21,500 state schools showed only a third would remain fully open.”
Also AWOL: 90 percent of the London police force. And airports are bracing for long delays and reduced security manpower.
BBC’s liveblog coverage is here.
The UK Telegraph’s live coverage is here. A taste of the entitlement-mongering chants from the teachers’ unions…just as inane over here as they are in America:
Richard Alleyne, one of The Daily Telegraph’s staff reporters, sends a dispatch from the march through central London.
Lecturers at Lambeth College have included a skeleton on their picket line. His name is Frederick and he is normally used as a teaching aid by Angus Pickthall for his sports science lessons. “I just wanted to show that we will all be working at his age from now on.
Around 300 lecturers from the college have also been marching through Brixton chanting slogans, includng: “You say cut back, we say fight back.” And “Michael Gove you are in detention, hands off teacher’s pensions.
The London Evening Standard tries to inject some reason:
However crucial the work of teachers and other public sector workers, they cannot be exempt from the problems affecting pensions overall. We are living longer and it is increasingly difficult for public provision to cover the cost of state pensions. Lord Hutton, whose report provides the basis for the reform plans, has called the existing situation untenable.
The Government is requiring teachers and other public sector workers to pay more towards their pensions, to work longer and to accept a pension based on their average wage over the course of their career rather than their final salary. These are not unreasonable demands; even if the reforms are implemented in full, public sector workers will still have a better pensions deal than most private sector employees, though that is not to say much.
It is unjust to expect the majority of the workforce to continue to pay for those in the public sector to have a far more generous pension than they will get themselves. A secure pension is a fair recompense for a career in public service but that pensions deal has to be realistic. The teachers and other state sector strikers risk forfeiting public sympathy if they do not acknowledge as much.
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When I see London,
I see France
It makes me poop my underpants
People back east may not realize it, but by the time a lot of us west coasters get around to logging onto Michelle Malkin, many of the threads have already been hijacked by trolls and the only discussion going on is a pissing match between the trolls and a few Malkinites.
Boring.
Be nice?
Screw them.
sic ‘em Southpaw
LOL
Which just like most liberals, the trolls are always wrong on all the issues and get trounced but still never get it. Their heads are too dense to process simple logic.
utopia finally hit England…on second thought wasn’t WWII fought to stop socialism?
Europe governed by mob rule, we may have one more chance in 2012 to avoid it ourselves.
Why is teaching considered a public service? It’s a job just like being an accountant, a barber or a supermarket cashier. If they want a secure pension, they should invest their own money in one, not expect a free ride from other people.
The only problem I have with Halperin’s comment is that he limited his description of Obama to the recent press conference.
Hi Michelle,
I am in London, been here a week and a half. Voted for the London Sheriff and other Guild business. . .facinating stuff for one of the few Americans invited to join a Guild and receive my Livery and granted Freedom of the City.
If I had known you were here I would have arranged a nice tour of Guild-related venues, like Guildhall and a few other historical places in The City. We would, of course, avoided the labor silliness.
Say, will you be back in late October? We have a very posh event in Guildhall and it would be my honor to invite you and Mr Malkin.
Cheers.
Hey!
Riots happen by society’s blood-sucking leeches (London, Greece, Madison) when you give them free stuff and then try and take it away. Best not to give people free stuff in the first place.