Barber: A demolition government
Brendan Barber, general secretary of the TUC, addresses the conference in Manchester:
“What we’ve got is not just a coalition government, but a demolition government.
“These are not temporary cuts, but a permanent rollback of public services and the welfare state. Not so much an economic necessity as a political project driven by an ideological clamour for a minimal state.
“What they take apart now could take generations to rebuild. Decent public services are the glue that holds a civilised society together and we diminish them at our peril. Cut services, put jobs in peril and increase inequality, that’s the way to make Britain a darker, brutish, more frightening place.
“Where members, faced with attacks on jobs, pay or pensions take a democratic decision for industrial action, they will have the support of unions and the TUC stands ready to co-ordinate that.”
