Ice Cream Van Economics.

This was the description of certain strands of the government's thinking by the head of Unison Scotland. His argument that starting from the point of view of how much money do we have and what can we get for that is like a child at an ice-cream van, whereas our leaders should start from the place of what do we need to be doing and how can we pay for that.

Up to that point, i would say that he has a fair point. The fact he went on to use this argument to try and justify a larger pay rise for his members rather undercuts his point as this has nothing to do with providing and protecting essential services from cuts and rather confirm me in my earlier rant against unions. To remind you, I was complaining that unison had voted down a pay deal for 1% this year, nothing next and 0.5% the year after. Well in response COSLA (Convention of Scottish Local Authorities) are imposing a deal of 0.65% this year and nothing for the next two years. The reduction from the original offer does seem deliberately provocative, but the whole thing was also rather predictable. The question now is will the union have the suicidal tendancy to go further and pursue industrial action. Meanwhile, I struggle with the almost irresistable urge to say I told you so.