I’m angry at David Cameron’s hypocrisy. This weekend, at a Conservative party conference, he attacked high earners in the public sector.
Cameron singled out, by name, an apparently random list of the 34th highest earner, Ed Richards, the chief executive of Ofcom (£400,000 per annum) and the senior executives at British Waterways, Robin Evans (67th), Nigel Johnson (184th), James Froomberg (128th) and Philip Ridal (129th) and revealed their wages (combined, around £900,000). It was unbecoming behaviour from the man Jon Gaunt calls prime minister.
David Cameron’s decision to name and shame these executives was hypocritical. Only minutes earlier he had criticised the Budget as a “pathetic piece of class war posturing.” And naming public sector officials was what, exactly? His list didn’t contain any of the top 10 best-paid public sector officials. And in picking officials from British Waterways, he conveniently missed better-paid officials with salaries set by Conservative party-run councils: Peter Gilroy, Kent County Council, Gerald Jones, Wandsworth Council – for example. And today, Cameron’s party will oppose government plans to reveal the salaries of private companies.
Where was your denunciation of senior bankers remuneration – David?
This class-driven hypocritical bullying (not dissimilar to Labour’s attack on Fred Goodwin) hints at a nasty future for the public sector – one in which high-calibre management is disincentivised to work in the public sector, where pay increases don’t happen in line with private sector increases and where the work of public servants is attacked at party conferences rather than praised. It suggests an emasculated public sector which provides the traditional Tory safety-net and second-class service, where charities have to fill the gaps – with scant resources.
This is not new conservatism. This is not nice conservatism. This is the same old Tories. Sadly, Labour is just too hopeless to take them on.
Related posts:
- Cameron mistaken on party funding reform
- Investment v Cuts has never worked
- What matters to trade unions?
- Damian McBride reaction: dishonest and hypocritical?
- Can political parties ever be relevant again?
Tags: David Cameron