Public sector staff strikes: live

15.50 George Monbiot, the Guardian columnist, has joined the condemnation of Ed Miliband, tweeting:

GeorgeMonbiot Is it asking too much that we might have a sodding Opposition in this country? Labour is to labour what the Liberals are to liberalism. http://t.co/VKANkiN. Could we sue them under trades description act?

15.39 But in the last hour or so, Mr Miliband has gone further, saying Labour MPs will cross picket lines outside Parliament and other public buildings. A Labour spokesman said that MPs "will be coming to work as normal". The move has met with consternation on the Left: Sunny Hundal, the editor of the Left-wing blog Liberal Conspiracy, tweeted:

15.29 During Prime Minister's Questions earlier today, David Cameron accused Ed Miliband, the leader of the Labour Party, of "being in the pocket of the unions" for not condemning the strikes during PMQs. In his blog last night, Mr Miliband said that strikes were "a failure", and added ?You do not win public backing for an argument about pensions by inconveniencing the public ? especially not while negotiations are ongoing.?

14.48 This morning's Telegraph carried a leading article also criticising the strikes, pointing out that in funding trade union staff wages, the taxpayer is effectively paying into the Labour Party:

The millions of people who will incur costs from and be generally inconvenienced by tomorrow?s public sector strikes will view with incredulity the fact that they are helping to foot the bill. Hundreds of full-time trade union representatives working at the heart of government are paid at public expense. The price of this extraordinary piece of indulgence ? bequeathed, naturally, by Labour ? is �19 million a year in Whitehall alone.

14.43 David Cameron, the Prime Minister, has attacked the strikes, claiming that they cost every household in Britain �1,000 a year:

We just can't go on as we are. That's not because, as some people say, public service pensions are ridiculously generous. In fact, around half of public service pensioners receive less than �6,000 a year.

The reason we can't go on as we are is because as the baby boomers retire ? and thankfully live longer ? the pension system is in danger of going broke.

No one should doubt the absolute resolve we have to deal with this issue fairly. Fairly by the public sector workers, but also by taxpayers.

14.41 Gordon Rayner, our chief reporter, writes that:

Hundreds of thousands of travellers can expect long queues at passport control because 70 per cent of UK Border Agency staff are members of the striking Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS)...

As many as 500,000 passengers are likely to be affected by the strike, in addition to the millions of parents who will have to make arrangements for children whose schools will be closed. Countless others will be affected by the biggest walkout in a generation.

_{(Photo: AFP)}

14.29 Good afternoon. Tonight from 6pm, the members of four unions will be going on strike to protest about changes to public sector pensions. Among those unions is the Public and Commerical Services Union (PCS), which includes among its members the UK Border Agency - meaning that customs and immigrations officers will down tools. Teachers across the country are expected to strike as well. We'll be following events as they happen

Powered By WizardRSS.com | Full Text RSS Feed | Amazon Plugin | Settlement Statement | WordPress Tutorials

Source: http://telegraph.feedsportal.com/c/32726/f/568387/s/1647d099/l/0L0Stelegraph0O0Ctravel0Ctravelnews0C860A61250CPublic0Esector0Estaff0Estrikes0Elive0Bhtml/story01.htm

Charles Mountbatten-Windsor Prince Charles Camilla Mountbatten-Windsor Duchess of Cornwall Robert Mugabe