Today I was sent a copy of the 'Town Hall Rich List' as published by the Taxpayer's Alliance. It merits the attention of everyone because in this age of so-called austerity the same people are milking the system and each year there are more of them.
Many of the job appointments in this particular area of the public sector have often caused comment notably for their nebulous titles. The recruitment of Town Hall staff appears to be continuing unabated despite the continual squeals of councils that they are being bled dry of money.
They continue to close libraries, public toilets and other necessary services but they never seem to address the outrageous salaries being allocated to senior staff. The fact that over 2500 relatively unimportant people are earning over £100,000 each for what is a mundane role in society is ridiculous.
This is Council tax money that should be filling in potholes and maintaining parks and waterways. I came across a table listing the salaries of senior officials at Leicestershire County Council for 2010/11 and 28 of them were earning over £80,000 per annum. This is rural Leicestershire where generally prices are reasonable in comparison to the sunny south. It meant that just 28 individuals are taking two and a quarter million pounds out of the economy and that was 2010/11!
It is statistics like these that are driving people towards UKIP. Nick Clegg is always talking about 'fairness' but what is fair about these Town Hall Fat Cats taking more than their fair share? I have posted about this before but nothing seems to shame councils into constructing a reasonable pay scale for their officers. Mind you when less than a third of the population bother to vote then what can you expect?
3 comments:
There was a poor chap on the radio this morning that has worked for the council for 27 years and due to "budget restraints" he is currently working his notice. He is 58 years old and has no idea how he is going to find another job!
He said on one hand they are pleading poverty and being forced to make cut backs to meet government spending targets, and on the other hand still employing people for £100k+ per annum jobs and on that kind of money they could afford to employ 8 of him.
I take comfort from the fact that folk are slowly waking up to what is going on and UKIP are finally making in-roads and getting a lot of publicity. They need to make a good impression with the council seats they recently won and just need to keep up the momentum. Their shiny new website looks much more professional which is a good start!
They need to make voting 'a cool thing to do' in they eyes of the younger generation, maybe get some tv ads with some fashionable celebrities or football idols asking young people to go out and vote or something.
I know it's a bit naff but that's what it's come down to i think.
I had quite an argument with my wife a few weeks ago because she couldn't be bothered to vote.
She says she has no interest in politics and therefore wouldn't have a clue who to vote for.
I tactfully suggested she make an effort for the sake of our son's future but as you can imagine that didn't get me very far :-)
I bet if she saw a trendy / glamorous advert in Hello or Grazia magazine asking her to vote she would start to take some form of interest.
It's shallow but I think with the way society has become, it could work.
Problem is the government would shy away from backing any kind of tv advertising campaign because they're quite happy with the way things are, just relying on their current fan base to support them in the elections and no one else bothers to turn up, although that's changing now due to pressure from UKIP.
or make voting compulsory!
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