The budget finally came. When the public sector pay freeze was confirmed a dark cloud formed over us. We are not talking about huge sums of money – usually just a few hundred pounds a year from our salaries, but it means more when it’s taken away. There is an unpleasant sense of being put on ice, like a neolithic mammoth.
Then there’s the envy, which has the potential of getting in the way. There are only two departments protected from the forecast 25% cuts that we will all face – International Development and Health. Those two will get real-terms budget increases for the foreseeable future. Which is just fine for them. But what about the rest? Everyone might be blinded into submission by the summer sunshine but in the autumn the real pain will begin when the spending review is published.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/jul/01/diary-civil-servant
‘We need somebody in the back office, or the frontline will wither’