None so blind - UPDATED.

You have to worry about Britain's future when Castro understands the need to make cuts in Cuba's public sector workforce while across the Atlantic the unions can't understand the need for cuts in Britain's public sector workwonkforce. Compare (my bold) ...

Cuba announced on Monday it would lay off "at least" half a million state workers over the next six months and simultaneously allow more jobs to be created in the private sector as the socialist economy struggles to get back on its feet.
The plan announced in state media confirms that President Raul Castro is following through on his pledge to shed some one million state jobs, a full fifth of the official workforce -- but in a shorter timeframe than initially anticipated.
"Our state cannot and should not continue maintaining companies, productive entities and services with inflated payrolls and losses that damage our economy and result counterproductive, create bad habits and distort workers' conduct," the CTC, Cuba's official labor union, said in newspapers.

... and contrast:

The TUC agreed to co-ordinate campaigns and industrial action amid warnings that some unions have already started preparing to launch stoppages.
Millions of workers are now on a collision course with the Government which could lead to a wave of strikes in the coming months as the scale of the austerity measures unfolds.
Leaders of the country's biggest unions lined up at the TUC conference in Manchester to lambast the Coalition for its spending cuts, which they said had already led to over 200,000 job losses or threats of redundancies among public sector workers.

And it get's better, or rather worse.

Dave Prentis, general secretary of Unison, said it was a "lie" that the country could not afford decent public services, arguing that the Government was making cuts because it wanted to promote privatisation.

If only that were true, Dave, if only that were true. I'd love it if The Twins were out there trying to promote private options and a smaller state but I suspect the truth is more mundane: there's no fucking money left.

"If there's money available to bail out banks and bonuses, if there's money for war and Trident, there's money for our public services."

Oh, Dave, you fucking bellend. The bank bailout was the handiwork of a Labour government run by a traditional tax and spend type PM, the banker's bonuses were private sector and therefore nothing to do with public spending until the Labour government nationalised them with the taxpayers' hard earned and yet to be earned money, the wars were the responsibility of the previous Labour PM, and while neither of them were responsible for ordering Trident in the 80s they had 13 years to find a way to chop it if it needed to go to make ends meet. But of course a trade unionist must always blame the Tories even if (a) it's not just the Tories and (b) they're either not in power or have only just taken over when the bills need to be paid. Don't get me wrong, I didn't vote for the Cobbelition and I'm far from impressed by them, but Prentis is saying that since Blair and Brown spunked away money until the national debt grew this big there must therefore be money for the Cobbelition to carry on.

And, to be blunt, he's fucking dreaming.

"If money is tight, never mind a pay freeze for our members, how about a pay freeze for bankers? We've seen enough of what they've done, we've had enough of their greed and arrogance. It's them, not our members, who should be doing more for less."

Well, Dave, I'm sure someone like you struggling by on only £127,500 or so a year would find that idea appealing, so let's try it out for size. All bankers pay is frozen as of now and for the life of the parliament... now, what effect has that had on the nation's finances? Well, happily I have the calculation right here.

Saving = √ fuck all

And this, Dave, you utterly witless cunt, is because the banker's aren't paid out of taxpayers' money. Oh, some of their banks were nationalised with it - in complete defiance of free market ideals, by the way, though since you probably wouldn't recognise a free market if it came up to you and fucked you in the face you mightn't be aware of that - and the taxpayers are liable if they go tits up, but even there are the bankers drawing salaries from the treasury's funds? I really doubt it. You might as well bang on about the obscene amounts of money paid to Premiership footbollockers - making the whole lot work for nothing but half time oranges would have absolutely zero beneficial effect on finances. On the other hand the less they earn the less they pay HMRC in tax. You remember tax, Dave? It's that legalised robbery thingie that governments do so they can provide the public services and associated non-jobs that you're currently getting your cock in a knot about.

And you want to prevent them helping out the national finances by forcing them not to pay more tax, you clueless fucktroon?

Brian Strutton of the GMB said a million people could lose their jobs as a result of the "reckless" cuts.
"The Government is in denial. It sees deficit reduction as the be all and end all, forgetting it was public spending that saved the economy from collapse during the banking crisis."

Even if that's true, which it isn't, how the hell are you supposed to continue public spending when the previous government ran out of everybody's fucking money?

Mark Serwotka, leader of the Public and Commercial Services union, said public sector workers should not take lectures from millionaires, adding that the real "scroungers" were the rich who avoided paying their taxes.
"Tax fraud costs £1 billion but tax avoidance costs £120 billion."

Tough shit, it's as legal and as moral as not paying £200 for a £150 suit. It sounds like you're planning to go on strike because you're not happy that other people are running their private financial affairs in a completely legal and rational way, and that makes you just a bit of a cunt.

The closest to a vaguely realistic perspective was that of the CWU's Dave Ward, who...

... said many people felt let down by the previous Labour government and said it was up to trade unions to lead the fight against spending cuts.

At least this one seems dimly to recognise where the blame lies even though he's just as determined to prevent anyone even trying a half-hearted attempt to repair the damage.

Meanwhile, back in Cuba,

State media on Monday did not give details about where private enterprise would be allowed to grow or which sectors would suffer layoffs, but did talk about which areas are still strategic.
"Within the state sector, it will only be possible to fill the jobs that are indispensable in areas where historically the labor force is insufficient, like agriculture, construction, teachers, police, industrial workers and others."
The announcement avoided the word "private," but said alternative forms of employment to be allowed included renting or borrowing state-owned facilities, cooperatives and self employment and that "hundreds of thousands of workers" would find jobs outside of the state sector over the next few years.
Castro has launched a few, small free-market reforms since taking over from his brother Fidel Castro in 2006.
In April, for example, barbershops were handed over to employees, who pay rent and tax but charge what they want. Licenses have also been granted to private taxis.
For a couple of years, fallow land in the countryside has been turned over to private farmers. The more they produce, the more they earn.

Unbefuckinglievable, isn't it? The government of fucking Cuba - Cuba, for fuck's sake! - is willing to do what dinosaur unionists in Britain can't stomach even the thought of. The world's gone quite mad.


UPDATE - been over to read Charlotte Gore on the same subject, where the thought processes of the unions are absolutely nailed.

See, in Crazy Land, taxpayers – especially evil businesses – are essentially a resource of infinite money and every problem can be solved by encouraging people to be less selfish and pay more tax (or the Government can borrow the money and the people can pay more tax later, when everyone will be richer as a result of the extra public sector employees and extra public spending! Woo!). There’s no such thing as ‘there’s no more money’.
There’s always more money.

And what state will a country be in when even they finally realise that the taxpayers of the private sector are not a bottomless pit? Will they realise before they get as far as Cuba has gone before the penny drops?