Sunday, July 26, 2009

Right on, Zapatero

Proof that not always pandering to Big Business can be possible.

Outside Little England, Spanish PM Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero "declares war against the CEOE", the Spanish equivalent of the CBI in the UK, announcing a series of anti-crisis measures that will include an increase in dole handouts. Can you imagine New Labour having the cojones to do that in the UK?

According to government sources, "80% of the Spanish people don't want [the introduction of] freedom to dismiss or cuts to social security. Yet this is what CEOE are asking for". In a press statement, the Department of Work said that the CEOE's behaviour makes an agreement "materially impossible".

Spanish daily El Pais reports that, in the next few weeks, Zapatero will highlight his pro-welfare credentials: "standing up for workers and the unemployed in time of crisis, as well as for eight million pensioners, pointing out that [CEOE leader] Díaz Ferrán want to jeopardise Social Security and reduce protection for unemployed and workers alike through the introduction of free dismissal measures".

1 comment:

Richard T said...

All the crap from the CBI and the Tories about cutting government expenditure is to preserve the privileges of the rich at the expense of the poor. The whining about the Charity Commission taking a slightly cold eye on the charitable status of public schools is a case in point. The sheer fecking brass neck of the rich getting a tax subsidy to enshrine their over privileged status beggars description. It sits in parallel with the foreign Office and Ministry of Defence paying for places at private and public schools for the upper echelons of the military and diplomats.

My blood shouldn't boil like this on a Monday morning but how in hell's name has a labour government allowed the perpetuation of this? St Tone, the soon to be Cardinal Archbishop of Europe at a guess.