Public services face death by a thousand cuts #stuc13

16 April 2013

UNISON's Scottish Secretary Mike Kirby writes in today's Morning Star..

"It's a sad fact that as the STUC gathers in Perth today Scotland's public services are under sustained and severe assault.

Not that this has played a great part in public debate in the last year. Scotland's politicians and media far prefer to obsess and catcall over the independence referendum.

But while they have the luxury of speculating on Scotland's future, we have to focus on the increasingly grim reality of Scotland's present.

Not the least of our tasks in the year ahead is to remind our governors that while the fate of the nation is important, it is the state of the nation that should be their principal concern.

The difficulties facing public services here are certainly different in form from those being endured by our colleagues in England.

Rather than the axe, they resemble more closely the proverbial death by a thousand cuts.

Budgets decline, services are cut back, staff are let go and those who remain struggle on with fewer people trying to cope with often increased demand using fewer resources...."

Read the rest of the article here


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