Quintin Jardine's blog

Just watched the Ten O’Clock News. Why am I always steamed up by the wanker with the megaphone shouting silly slogans? Maybe I’m a dyed-in-the-wool reactionary. Maybe, but I’ve been hearing the same crap for forty odd years now. Thursday’s public sector strikes will happen, in part, because people are living on average six years longer than they did thirty years ago. Isn’t that evidence that our society has moved onwards and upwards during that period? Okay, I’m in the lifeboat, I am officially a senior citizen . . . call me a pensioner and I will fill you in . . .but the fact is, the people who were shouting in the streets today and will be on Thursday are a damn sight better off than I was when I was one of their number. It’s sad they don’t have the wit to realise that the more civil servants who take industrial action and are seen on telly parading in mass demos, the more people involved in national wealth generation, (and that means everyone who makes things or renders chargeable services) will be likely to ask, ‘Do we need them all?’