'It's a gimmick not a big idea'

16 February 2010

Tories are talking about swinging public sector spending cuts while they want schools, community nurses, probation services, job centres to launch into huge bureaucratic processes to achieve nothing at all says GMB

GMB commented on today's announcement by Tory shadow chancellor George Osborne that if elected they would introduce worker co-operatives for public services.

Brian Strutton GMB national secretary for Public Services said – "This is a real left-field idea that seems completely out of step with what's going on and begs a number of questions. On the one hand the Tories are talking about swinging public sector spending cuts then on the other they want schools, community nurses, probation services, job centres and heaven knows what else to launch into huge bureaucratic processes to achieve nothing at all – surely the wrong idea at the wrong time. Who would decide whether to go for a co-operative? Would the public users of these services get a say? What would be the benefit? What if it should go wrong? Who would a co-operative be accountable to? There doesn't seem to be any depth of thought behind such a radical sounding idea so I think the conclusion to be drawn is that this is just a political gimmick."