sawyl | Levelling up? Or Levelling down?

Yesterday's leaked memo about possible changes to civil service terms and conditions has left people more than slightly angry. According to the Guardian, the memo states:

The civil service reform plan states that each department will undertake a review of their terms and conditions. Your review should ensure that your department, and collectively the civil service, continues to be a good employer, offering terms and conditions comparable with, but not beyond what a good modern employer would provide

In my case, the private sector would offer me three times my current salary. Does that mean I can expect the reform to lead to an improvement in my conditions? No, I didn't think so.

It's hard to believe that the government is seriously going to go ahead with such a toxic set of reforms. It's possible to see why the Tories might want to do it — as Mark Serwotka says, it can be seen as their general project to drag working conditions down the bare minimum.

However it's hard to understand why the Lib Dems would agree to it because civil servants are more likely to vote liberal than conservative and because they really can't afford to lose half a million potential votes. Actually, I suspect it's already too late — most people I've talked to, even those realtively apolitical, seem to have sworn off voting for either memeber of the coalition at the next election.