Maintainer
** Chief WITCH **
Sorry I got busy there - crazy that Cheryl had to work such ridiculous hours when full time... absolutely crazy... How can you function in that sort of job, under those sort of CRAZY pressures, working those hours!
BUT, I don't think we can/should blame "the banks" entirely for the mess in which the UK now finds itself in. I think you were closer when you mentioned Brown, Vicky... I'm staggered at how much debt he managed to run up... how many people don't work who COULD work and have no intention of working... and why would they with all the benefits they and they families scoop up (I do catch the odd Jeremy Kyle episode and am ever astounded!!!!)...
Working in the financial sector (not a banks I hasten to add!), it's been explained to me that if the UK were to hold back on the bonuses, top notch international graduates who now FLOCK to London to make the UK the important financial centre it currently is would simply go elsewhere. In fact, it's not yet certain that London will be able to keep its place, depending on how closely the banks are monitored.
Where this public sector pay rise freeze is of course particularly difficult is, as Cheryl says, when both wage earners are in the public sector. As a private sector employee always, having seen redundancies galore of close friends here, I know how lucky I am to have a job at the moment in this field... two of my friends have been "fired" for nothing recently in other firms, and probably more to come (and who knows how long my luck will last...). Pay rises have been 0% here for a while, and if we don't like something, we have two choices - stay or quit! There's no guarantee of inflationary rises in France anyway... so 0% has been my lot for probably 3 of the past 7 years!
BUT, I don't think we can/should blame "the banks" entirely for the mess in which the UK now finds itself in. I think you were closer when you mentioned Brown, Vicky... I'm staggered at how much debt he managed to run up... how many people don't work who COULD work and have no intention of working... and why would they with all the benefits they and they families scoop up (I do catch the odd Jeremy Kyle episode and am ever astounded!!!!)...
Working in the financial sector (not a banks I hasten to add!), it's been explained to me that if the UK were to hold back on the bonuses, top notch international graduates who now FLOCK to London to make the UK the important financial centre it currently is would simply go elsewhere. In fact, it's not yet certain that London will be able to keep its place, depending on how closely the banks are monitored.
Where this public sector pay rise freeze is of course particularly difficult is, as Cheryl says, when both wage earners are in the public sector. As a private sector employee always, having seen redundancies galore of close friends here, I know how lucky I am to have a job at the moment in this field... two of my friends have been "fired" for nothing recently in other firms, and probably more to come (and who knows how long my luck will last...). Pay rises have been 0% here for a while, and if we don't like something, we have two choices - stay or quit! There's no guarantee of inflationary rises in France anyway... so 0% has been my lot for probably 3 of the past 7 years!
