School's Out for, er... Wednesday

So, the public sector strikes en-masse, comme  Les Français on Wednesday? There is an expectation that nine in ten schools will close for the day, medical operations will be postponed and the UK entry process may grind to a crawl. Town halls throughout the land will ring with the sound of absolutely nothing being achieved, so at least there's little change there.

I think it is brilliant! How absolutely wonderful that so many people are prepared to give up a day's pay to help in the recovery. I am assuming, of course, that the nation's few remaining actual tax payers are not expected to fund what for many will simply be a day at home, or an opportunity to take their kids Christmas shopping. The turnout for strike ballots has been remarkably low, as if the majority sense the public mood is against them, as indeed it is. Many will strike simply because they've been told to, by confrontational, scaremongering union officials, scared for their own future.

The notion of jobs for life is gone forever and it's dog-eat-dog out there. If I had a relatively secure - compared to the private sector - job, at a reasonable rate, with a bloody good, if not exactly opulent, pension at the end of it, I reckon I'd be selfish and keep damned quiet about it. Because if I were a public sector boss, I'd be keeping a very close eye on what actually results from Wednesday's stoppages.

We definitely need public servants - privatising everything would be a huge mistake - but we don't need half of those we've got. Any non-front-line NHS staff, 'diversity' workers, or anybody with 'coordinator' tacked onto their job title ought to be in real fear next week. The clever bosses should monitor the disruption - clearly, some patients may be put at a tiny risk (very few operations are really that urgent), public transport deficiencies may enrage travellers and delayed bin collections will upset a few - but I guarantee a whole lot of absences will go utterly unnoticed.

The kids will miss nothing at all - at this time of year all they do at school is wait for Christmas. And while many hands-on administrators in other areas may be missed, they may well wish a second day off for their leaders, as they will catch up so much more quickly without their interference. Relatively few public sector workers fulfil such urgent functions that a day's absence will cause any genuine hardship - just examine the sickie-count for a start.

But those whose petulant, pouting, shouting day off causes no problems, no loss of productivity, or is not even noticed should return to find their door locked and a redundancy notice pinned to it. This action could be a greatest opportunity yet to work out exactly where to trim the fat off the the bloated corpse of Britain's public sector.

Mr Cameron, take note. You could easily apply the same principle in Westminster; I bet you, nobody would miss Nick Clegg for a month, let alone a day.