From David Spencer.
SO Mr Corbel threatens action by his various groups of pawns to disrupt services in the public sector.

I assume that the taxpayer does not have to underwrite the salaries and wages of puppets on strike (a modest saving there, then) and I refuse to believe that every member of staff in the health services, for example, will subserviently ask ‘How high should I jump?’ when confronted with a Corbel dictat.

Nevertheless, the bottom line is supposed to be that the waste disposal works could grind to a halt, the police will disappear, all schools will close, the tax department will cease operations, customs officers will be invisible (the airport and harbours would not be open anyway), tourism becomes a figment of the imagination and the fuel farm a waste of space. And Mr Corbel’s tentacles no doubt also extend in case of need to the utilities, telecoms and buses.

It is evident that this is political posturing bordering upon the obscene in a time of global recession from which this Island is also suffering and the bluff has to be called. Surely Mr Corbel’s playthings must appreciate that if they have a job now (especially a public sector one with its unquestionable benefits) they will not advance their chances of having any employment whatsoever in six months time by bankrupting and alienating their paymasters.

That rude phrase (for them), ‘the private sector’, will be their only hope in the future. Unionised labour in public services has to be outlawed sooner or later, leaving it to each individual to have a mind of his/her own.

I make no apology for using the words pawns, puppets and playthings (the alliteration appeals to me, anyway) but they sum up my contempt for the whole trades union movement since I was a mere 16 year old in 1950.