Top Public Sector Pay Soars By Five Times Inflation Rate

[BuyingBear]

Top public sector pay soars by five times inflation rate

Britain's best paid public sector workers last year received average pay rises of 13 per cent - more than five times the rate of inflation and nearly three times more than their peers in FTSE100 index companies.

A survey by the Sunday Telegraph shows that 10 executives at Royal Mail, Channel 4 and other state-owned organisations were paid more than £500,000 in 2004-05.

The news will embarrass Gordon Brown ahead of tomorrow's Pre-Budget Report. He is scrambling to control the public finances amid allegations that much of his public spending boom has gone in pay rises.

The best-paid public officials include executives at regulators set up by Labour such as Ofcom and the Financial Services Authority.

Ofcom's chief operating officer, Ed Richards, received an 18 per cent pay rise last year. John Tiner, the chief executive of the FSA, netted £540,252 - 15 per cent more than in 2003/04.

Meanwhile, Network Rail, the rail operator set up by the Government in 2002, paid its chief executive £919,000 last year - a 26 per cent increase.

Ed Balls was spinning like mad on Channel 4 News earlier, he likes to use the 'recession' word now, strictly in the context of avoidance, "boom and bust" has definitely departed from his parlance along with little miss prudence. Another interesting missive regards Browns inheritance :-

The Chancellor will be privately cursing Blair for proposing to hand back £1 billion per year of the UK's annual rebate from the European Union budget. It is not that he lacks sympathy for the Prime Minister's conviction that he needs to make a gesture, lest we alienate strategically important allies from the New Europe in the east. But he sees the priority as securing reforms to the Common Agricultural Policy and will question why his precious cash has to be offered up as a substitute for that negotiation.

In fact, in his darker moments, Brown fears that Blair actually wants to bequeath maximum mayhem to his successor, so that his own premiership will appear more glittering by comparison. Brown is haunted by the possibility that he - who engineered such a solid balance sheet for Blair - might have to fight the next election with the public sector finances in a parlous state, and fending off accusations that taxation would have to rise. Understandably, therefore, he does not want to make any public spending commitments of substance at all just now. In fact, he is preoccupied with a Comprehensive Spending Review whose aim - a painful one for individual ministries - is to eliminate all non-essential public expenditure.

That explains things. Talk about city bonuses!

[Justice]

This is not a democracy we live in where both sides of the political dived keep voting themselves a huge pay rise and pension entitlements too.

Don’t think we have real debate amongst the three parties, all they care about is who’s going to be team leader for the next game of cricket.

Peasants need to revolt I think and take charge of their own lives as they won’t have one if things continue as they are.