"Public Sector Debate": Any chance of a truce?

D

damson

Registered User
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There's an interesting thread on politics.ie:
[broken link removed]

In pretty much every sphere I move in at present, and especially noticeable on internet discussion boards, the public-private sector battle is evident. It's bitter, divisive, and ultimately unproductive - except for the government, who are running a classic 'divide and conquer' programme.

At the risk of sounding like a naive, "can't we all just get along" type, is there any possibility that something of the attitude displayed in the link above could be harnessed here on AAM?

From the politics.ie thread:
 
Re: Any chance of a truce?

I'm on. Sick of it. Again.

In fact am currently considering simply staying out of The Depths purely because of this public/private thing.
 
Re: Any chance of a truce?

Agreed. A self imposed truce is the way to go. We must have some common ground.
 
Re: Any chance of a truce?

ah right... like should toilet paper dangle on the inside or outside...
 
Re: Any chance of a truce?

Caveat said:
I'm on. Sick of it. Again.

In fact am currently considering simply staying out of The Depths purely because of this public/private thing.
Click to expand...

+1 - Especially because no new arguments are being produced - same old stuff all the time.
 
Re: Any chance of a truce?

Sounds like a plan! We've all been at it hammer and tongs for nearly a year and, as Ney says, it's just the same old arguments and counter arguments. I think, at this stage, anybody who was prepared to budge has done so. There's nothing more to be achieved by continuing the rows.
 
Re: Any chance of a truce?

The saddest thing to me is some of the issues are worth debating, but the points get lost in unsubstantiated "facts" and sometimes defending for the sake of defending. Among the many threads there have been I have learned stuff I didn't know and had to change my own views on certain things. Doesn't that make some of the frustration worthwhile?

It is a pity that they do decend into a predictable slump, but in some cases there are very good points raised on either side of the "debate", important things too.

I think it more important that when a point is valid it is accepted on either side. But there seems to be a culture of "this poster's not for turning" and the threads suffer as a result.

Given the scale of the problems in the state and given the pain we're all going to have to take, I don't see how we can avoid these current issues. Yes it's unfortunate that at this moment the focus is on public spending. but that's a big thing that's needs sorting it's not something we can ignore because if it isn't sorted don't make too many plans for beyond April.

As I say, arguments and rows aside, I've actually learned a lot from these threads.
 
Re: Any chance of a truce?

Latrade said:
The saddest thing to me is some of the issues are worth debating, but the points get lost in unsubstantiated "facts" and sometimes defending for the sake of defending.
Click to expand...

+1.
The PS wage bill will have to reduced and is worth discussing but it just ends up getting bogged down non-PS workers making cheap shots or PS workers getting over-defensive.
I was going to start a thread for public servant to make suggestions as to savings could be made in the public sector but I could see it would end up going down the same road as previous threads.
 
Re: Any chance of a truce?

I'm starting to get bored with AAM because so many of it's posts go down the same route, you almost know at this stage who will be posting and who will be saying what once you read the first post.

What really disappoints me is the failure of people on both sides of the arguement to accept that the others may actually have valid points. The reality is that the public sector is far from perfect, despite what some posters on here would have you believe, but it's also far from being the money sucking innefficient bloated monstrosity that other posters would have you believe. Rational reasoned arguement goes out the window.

I think Shawady post about public sector workers making suggestions for cost savings is an excellent one, providing they are not couched in vague management speak around "efficiencies" and "synergies". These are the people at the coal face, why not get them to make some reasoned suggestions, preferable with numbers attached and ask private sector worker posters not to comment on them for a week?
 
Re: Any chance of a truce?


I would be delighted to see such posts. And would be happy not to comment at all. I would be very interested in seeing the outcome.
 
Re: Any chance of a truce?

The public sector should share IT, HR, Finance + Training.
 
Re: Any chance of a truce?

cork said:
The public sector should share IT, HR, Finance + Training.
Click to expand...
sounds good in theory, but with with their track record (and the track records of the uk public sector also) on large projects like this it would be a disaster.

Nice idea though
 
Re: Any chance of a truce?

galleyslave said:
sounds good in theory, but with with their track record (and the track records of the uk public sector also) on large projects like this it would be a disaster.

Nice idea though
Click to expand...

Sorry*, but talk about giving up before we even try. It's hardly fair to say the PS should be reformed and then say that they'll mess up the reform anyway. Liaconn is right: damned if they do, damned if they don't.

And just what has the UK's track record got to do with here? Why not say Germany has managed its PS reform well, that's just as valid.

*sorry appreciate aim of thread didn't mean to bite, but then went ahead regardless.
 
Re: Any chance of a truce?

Latrade - I mean that large scale national projects have a bad track record. Smaller ones, fair enough
 
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