Public Sector Pay
Under the British constitution, passing an opposed amendment to the Queen's Speech is an attempt to bring down the government (or prevent one being formed.)
The debate about Labour's amendment to the Queen's speech about public sector pay has to be seen in that context.
It's perfectly legitimate to argue that the 1% cap on most public sector pay above a certain level should be reviewed or changed, but just bear in mind that the fact that MPs on the government side voted the Labour amendment down does not tell you that they disagree with it.
Passing Labour's amendment would not in itself have paid nurses, teachers or other public servants affected any more money, but it would have brought down the government and might have made Jeremy Corbyn Prime Minister.
In reality there is a big debate doing on within the Conservative party about whether to change policy on this issue, but it was never going to be done by changing the Queen's Speech. All the vote on that tells you is that Conservative MP's do not want Jezza to be PM - big surprise.
One Conservative MP, Charles Walker, who actually supports removing the cap wrote this letter to a constituent (name redacted) on why he could not vote for the Labour amendment.
There has been some pretty foul stuff posted on the websites and Facebook pages of Conservative MPs on this subject and one Labour supporter attempted to put something of the sort on my own Facebook page.
Let me make clear that if you want to make a constructive and positive argument for changing the policy on public sector pay on my blog or facebook page without resorting to personal abuse, I will allow you to do so although if I disagree I reserve the right to explain why.
Post abuse or insults on the subject and I will simply delete them.
The debate about Labour's amendment to the Queen's speech about public sector pay has to be seen in that context.
It's perfectly legitimate to argue that the 1% cap on most public sector pay above a certain level should be reviewed or changed, but just bear in mind that the fact that MPs on the government side voted the Labour amendment down does not tell you that they disagree with it.
Passing Labour's amendment would not in itself have paid nurses, teachers or other public servants affected any more money, but it would have brought down the government and might have made Jeremy Corbyn Prime Minister.
In reality there is a big debate doing on within the Conservative party about whether to change policy on this issue, but it was never going to be done by changing the Queen's Speech. All the vote on that tells you is that Conservative MP's do not want Jezza to be PM - big surprise.
One Conservative MP, Charles Walker, who actually supports removing the cap wrote this letter to a constituent (name redacted) on why he could not vote for the Labour amendment.
There has been some pretty foul stuff posted on the websites and Facebook pages of Conservative MPs on this subject and one Labour supporter attempted to put something of the sort on my own Facebook page.
Let me make clear that if you want to make a constructive and positive argument for changing the policy on public sector pay on my blog or facebook page without resorting to personal abuse, I will allow you to do so although if I disagree I reserve the right to explain why.
Post abuse or insults on the subject and I will simply delete them.
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