The Workers Song - Dick Gaughan

I'll start off by saying straight off the bat that I know our plight isn't as harsh as the song. Today though we were out for a short sharp protest against the government cuts to eduction. Don't get me wrong, I know the cuts are affecting huge parts of society (or the big society as call me Dave is prone to calling it) and teachers don't have any real ground s for different treatment from others. I should also add that my job appears to be safe for now. What galls me though is at a time when unemployment is set to rise drastically through spending cuts the government should be looking to increase access to further education and re-training rather than cutting it by in excess of ten percent.

I know the education secretary Mike Russell requested a commitment from Scotland's Colleges bot to cut teachers at the weekend but that doesn't address the real issues which are the facts that the cuts are still being made, colleges are being asked to make these cuts by reducing courses, and even if we don't lose teachers we'll lose other equally important staff from our colleges. To be honest Russell's request reeks of tokenism and an attempt to try and absolve he and his government colleagues of any blame for the current predicament. You'd think there was an election coming up or something.

I do appreciate that the blame doesn't lie firmly with the Scottish Parliament right enough. The Westminster coalition have convinced themselves that they have been given a mandate to dismantle the public sector and have a privatisation carve up rather than taxing the banks and big business (Vodaphone being a prime example) or tighten up rules on tax avoidance for the rich (well if they did that Gideon might have to stop avoiding his tax after all). I know these measures wouldn't solve all our financial problems but they'd make the public sector hit a damn sight less painful.

The truly frustrating thing is that they seem to be assuming we're stupid enough not to realise that the private companies they want to take up the public sector shortfall will be driven by market forces and aiming first and foremost to make a profit for their shareholders so the chances of them delivering as good a service for the same money are on the non-existent side of slim to non-existent.

Oh, I wasn't the only blipper there either.

Anyway, here's the song as the description says it was originally written by Ed Pickford who doesn't often get the credit he deserves for it. The Gaughan version is, for me, the stand out one though. I am a wee bit biased because he was a friend of my uncle's and used to crash on my Granny's floor on occasion.