Now -read the book!

Here is a link to my memoirs which, if you are a glutton for punishment, you can purchase online at https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/an-obscure-footnote-in-trade-union-history.
Men fight and lose the battle, and the thing that they fought for comes about in spite of their defeat, and when it comes turns out not to be what they meant, and other men have to fight for what they meant under another name. (William Morris - A Dream of John Ball)

Monday, December 12, 2011

Solidarity with HMRC

Solidarity with PCS members in Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) staging walkouts in opposition to privatisation and draconian sickness management today (http://union-news.co.uk/2011/12/a-date-with-data-%e2%80%93-tax-officials-strike-today/).



Tax collectors may not be the most popular public servants, but their work is vital to providing the resources on which all our services ultimately depend. While ordinary staff struggle to keep the show on the road after tens of thousands of job losses in recent years (http://www.pcs.org.uk/en/news_and_events/news_centre/index.cfm/id/9EC48325-6B49-4545-A96B97C09980A23B), their boss - notorious for losing us billions in deals with corporations trying to avoid tax (http://m.guardian.co.uk/money/2011/dec/06/hmrc-tax-deal-vodafone?cat=money&type=article) - is retiring on a pension many times larger than they can look forward to (http://m.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/dec/09/revenue-chief-retires-goldman-sachs?cat=politics&type=article).



It seems somehow fitting that someone who came to public attention by proving that there really is one law for the rich and one law for the rest should himself benefit from that same phenomenon.



In the mean time though, ordinary employees working in HMRC have to stand up for themselves and all trade unionists should wish them well.

Sent using BlackBerry® from Orange

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