Were they lying then or are they lying now?
The government are trying to have it both ways on so-called 'independent' review board. We can't let them.
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The Times reported yesterday that Rishi Sunak is planning to overrule the advice of the ‘independent’ pay review bodies for rises in the public sector of around 6%.
Last year, when the government were responding to the strikes from nurses, teachers, junior doctors etc the constant line was “We are following advice from the independent review bodies”.
There are lots of questions to be asked about this decision now, just as there were about that decision then. Questions like “how are you going to achieve your mission of reducing NHS waiting lists if you take a decision that will actively reduce staffing levels?” or “Do you think that public sector workers get free food and rent somehow?”
But here, what I want to talk about is the inconsistency, incoherence and outright dishonesty that the government is showing here and why I think it matters.
Ultimately, whether a government raises public sector pay or not is a political decision. They may decide it’s the right thing to do morally, politically and in terms with their political priorities and manifesto. They may decide that they don’t prioritise doing so, worrying about its effect on inflation.
As a democrat, I will disagree with those who make the latter decision, but I respect their right - as an elected government - to make them. I will march, I will support strikes, I will sign petitions to try to get them to change their minds. But I accept that it is their minds that have to be changed.
Last year, they tried to outsource their political pain. To ease the pressure they were being put under they told us over and over and over again that decisions on pay were nothing to do with them. That these were not the regrettable (and changeable) choices of politicians, but the cool minded choices of detached experts. That those low pay rises were the result of even handed analysis that should not - therefore - be messed with by mere elected officials.
That was always guff. But it is particularly mendacious guff when it turns out you only listen to those exact same experts when they tell you what you want to hear. When they support the pain you want to inflict.
I think Sunak - as well as being deeply, fundamentally right wing when it comes to economics - is also trying to look tough on this issue following the debaclé of his weak response to the Parliamentary Standards Committee report. He is confusing looking cruel with looking statesmanlike.
But this attempt to look and talk tough fails on its own terms. Becuase while it might be an attempt to address Sunak’s weakness problem, it shows up the Tories ongoing problem with honesty. Because they are saying one convenient thing now while taking an opposite convenient line last year.
It can’t be true both that the pay review bodies are completely independent and in charge when their recommendations are lower than workers demands and that they can be overruled when their recommendations are higher than the government is comfortable.
So what I want to know - and what Keir Starmer should be demanding to know at PMQs and journalists on every interview show should be asking is this:
Were they lying then or are they lying now?
As some of you may remember - a few wonderful people (and me) - wrote and spent the bank holiday writing a play in 48 hours. And it turns out... it's so good we're putting it on again!
48 will be showing on the 3rd and 4th July at the Lion and Unicorn in Kentish Town and you can buy tickets here: https://app.lineupnow.com/event/forty-eight
We've got pirates and time travel and cabbages and a Weft engine and weird blokes and the whole of human consciousness. We've also got a seriously fun night out that will make you laugh and possibly even cry too.
I'd love for you to come and see it.
I run a political and communications consultancy called Political Human. Please get in touch if you are looking for political or media consultancy advice, strategic communication and campaign planning, ghostwriting, copywriting, editing, training or coaching.
You can read some lovely things that some of my clients have said here.
What I’ve been up to
Podcast-palooza this week! Firstly Zeitgeist Tapes covered Succession. Then House of Comments first looked at the Privileges Committee report then covered the Parliamentary response.
Theatre-wise I saw SHEWOLVES - which felt like a very Edinburgh show. Fun and fizzy but needed more development. I also took part in the excellent immersive show Jury Duty which I loved.
Pay Review Bodies recommendations are bound by their terms of reference from the Government which include:
"3. the funds available to the Health Departments as set out in the Government’s Departmental Expenditure Limits;
4. the Government’s inflation target;"
See https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/nhs-pay-review-body/about/terms-of-reference
Not independent in any way!