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Ed Miliband backs Ed Balls over public-sector pay freeze | Politics | The Guardian.

I saw Ed Milband on the Andrew Marr show yesterday and as I mentioned in an earlier blog was quite impressed with what he had to say. My wife thought that he was probably fine with words but probably not so good with delivery – she concluded that “he’s not another Tony Blair“!

I have a personal observation on UK austerity and the Public Sector. The UK Public Sector has already downsized substantially in terms of numbers of jobs. Now we have the Labour leadership supporting pay freezes. The Coalition Government have also secured cuts in future pension entitlements for Public Sector workers. It is interesting to compare this all to what is happening in Greece. Greek Public Sector Workers have had cuts in their salaries AND their future pension entitlements. Most interestingly, there have been no cuts in employment levels in the Greek Public Sector – the huge increase in Greek unemployment has come from small to medium Private Sector businesses.

 Comparing the UK Public Sector austerity measures to those in Greece, there are two emerging questions:

1. Have cuts to the UK Public Sector been too severe? Or
2. Have cuts to the Greek Public Sector not been severe enough?

What do you think?

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