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Is A General Strike A Good Idea?

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anotheoldgit | 14:04 Thu 04th Apr 2013 | News
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http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/britains-biggest-unions-put-weight-behind-plan-for-general-strike-8559027.html

If so what do you think it would achieve, except for a further loss of income for the workers.
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Nothing, since this government is set on its course and wouldn't listen.
no, and it won't achieve anything, not in the long term.
No, its not. The last general strike did not achieve much beyond notoriety. I had thought that employment law effectively made a general strike illegal, anyway, and I doubt they could get a consensus for action amongst all the unions anyway.
Traditionally calls for strikes have been from the Unions who are supporters of the Labour Party.
A general strike at the moment would bring this country even closer to it's financial knees (if such a thing is possible) and would simply be following the traditional behavior of the Labour Party which is to try and cripple the Country every time they get the opportunity, and is certainly something which is something I've witnessed them doing whenever they've achieved power during my lifetime.
So NO, not a good idea.
there will be sporadic strikes i expect, the teachers, and then other public sector workers, but i can't see it coming to an all out general strike.
It's just the Marxist union barons dreaming of the pre Maggie days when they ran the country. General Strike? PMSL!
It's only the public sector unions trying to hang on to their jobs for life and final salary pension schemes. It is absolutely nothing to do with them trying to defend public services as they keep saying, that is just a smoke screen.
General strikes are to ram home the point that the masses are not there to take the pain of the management who have made mistakes errors, and need government decisions that take their needs into consideration as if they were actually worth something (perish the thought). It makes the abused feel they have done something and the powers that be consider how they can progress from there onwards. If, as has been suggested, it has no affect, then one is pointing out that peaceful protest isn't worth it: that it is just a sop to the masses whilst those in positions of power just do as they please. This is not a good piece of information to make generally available. Folk may not react well to it.
The dinosaurs are waking up again. They have their puppet Red Edd poised and they cannot wait to crash the country.

The Coalition just needs to hold tight. Those that are likely to strike will only be labour voters so who cares?
no i don't think it would only be labour voters who strike, this time it could well be a fair old mix, not many happy bunnies here right now.
I'm relatively happy, at least I don't live in Greece or Cyprus.
only if it got us a bit more heat....
I'm with OG on this one.

youngmafbog
No dinosaurs needed, the Coalition are doing quite a good job of crushing the country without needing assistance.

With giving their rich cronies an income tax reduction and unable to legislate and give HMRC the teeth it needs to force Companies into paying Corporation tax.
I am absolutely astounded by the notion that people in the UK are generally abused, downtrodden, potless, poverty-stricken, destitute, malnourished, freezing, oppressed or any other description which gives the impression that this government is the most vicious and evil administration the world has ever seen.

People in this country, by and large, enjoy a standard of living way which is beyond the level that the economy can reasonably support. Look around and see what is happening. See how many expensive cars are being driven by families on modest incomes. See how full restaurants, bars and cinemas are. Try and book a half decent holiday less than about six months in advance. Go to any airport and see how many people jet off each time there is a school holiday. Stroll down any High Street during the day and look in the cafes. You will see “hard pressed families” stuffing their children’s faces with wholly unsuitable food which costs four or five times the amount needed to prepare a more healthy alternative at home. Today ar about 10am I walked past my local McDonalds. In there were large numbers of people with “kids” tucking in to all the slurry and sludge that those establishments sell under the guise of food. True, some people are better off than others. But there always has benn and always will be some people better off than others.

Difficult problems require difficult measures. All this government is trying to do is to slow the rate of growth in welfare payments and public sector salaries. As far as public sector employment goes they are not going anywhere near far enough. Some 600,000 people joined the public payroll in 2004-2010. Few of these were probably needed and many of them produce nothing tangible or provide no useful service. The Public Sector unions need to keep their heads down because their many of their members performing “non-jobs” should be high on the hit list. I don’t think many people really appreciate the parlous state of the UK’s finances and far harsher measures than those currently proposed are necessary to restore the economy to an even keel.

By the way, slack, before you go on about the government “…giving their rich cronies an income tax reduction” consider this. The current plan is to reduce the top rate of tax from 50% to 45%. For all but the last two weeks of Labour’s thirteen year term of office they were quite content with the top rate of tax being set at 40%. This includes the period from 2008-10 immediately following the financial crisis. So if 40% was sufficient for Labour, why is 45% insufficient for the Coalition?
There was a strike the other week in one public sector union and another one tomorrow afternoon. I'm not a striker (or in a Union), glad to have a job.
The only problem would be if the pubs went on strike, that would really be a disaster.
yes
Yes what, friedgreen? The question was "...what do you think it would achieve"
No, a General Strike is a bad idea.

People are already fed up wothout strikes making it worse.
NJ, some people are unseen victims, those can and do fall through the net,
you see it more now..

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