• Policy: Tories plan 'bonfire of the quangos'

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Of course public servants must have a pay freeze. I and many pensioners have suffered a massive income freeze in my pension and income from bank deposits. We can not allow public services to have increases above RPI. The alternative is massive job cuts.

- Peter, Watford UK

Darling-what a joke. "We will freeze wages". Oh, you don't like that? I am sorry, I didn't mean it. please forgive me. Are we still friends? What a wimp. Check your backbone at the door, Alistair ! You won't need it anytime soon.

- Ruckus, Myrtle Beach USA

Both America and the UK need to tighten their belts. Pay should be frozen, spending cuts in services, and trim the fat. Famalies do it and it is about time public service workers and Government does it. Gordon and Obamas plan to spend our way out of debt will not work. We are experiencing the fallout now. It is economics 101. You can't spend your way into prosperity. If these folks ever had a real job running a real business they would know that. I wish we could clone Margret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan. We need them now more than ever. The Great Communicator and the Iron Lady. A great duo for our time. Obama and Gordon claim to will save the world. What arrogance and stupidity. We as voters, do not learn very quickly.

- Ruckus, Myrtle Beach USA

Ooohh, Paid sick leave, 35 hours per week, London Weighting and better holidays.

Maya, if you would prefer to have a decent pay & benefits package then why the hell did you take a private sector job.

You could have paid union membership for a few years and been enjoying what you seem to be missing in your not so brilliant job, after all we read your pathetic comments every time there is an Evening Standard article about Public sector, London Underground etc wages and conditions.

If your job really is that bad, then get a nice public sector job while you stil can!

- Frank Bell, West London, England

We all know that it was only lip-service and a meaningless gesture to the taxpayers by the oh-so-honest-non-expense-grabbing person Darling. Darling dear, a word of advice to your little naive self: never ever under-estimate anyone's intelligence. As you, Brown and the rest of you will find out at the next election.

- Tinkerbelle, london

Good God Petra, what planet are you from? Do you even believe half of what you wrote?

SOME very privileged few have had SOME of the things you mentioned, whereas the vast, overwhelming majority have had nothing of the sort!

Private sector work isn't just rich bankers, it's EVERYTHING that isn't government paid: Van drivers, shop workers, hairdressers, builders - everything.

If you, and the other public sector workers, think the work is that easy and the financial rewards are that great outside government, go try it yourself.

Myself, a salesman - monthly targets:
Fail to hit target one month = verbal warning.
Fail the second month = written warning.
Fail a third month = clear your desk out and find a new job.
That's not just the recession, that's a permanent, no excuses countenanced.

Someone name me ONE public sector job with that pressure of job security. If I go on strike, I simply lose my job - and people like you laugh as you think I'm some kind of greedy & corrupt millionaire.

Six million public sector workers in a country of sixty million, one in ten, is an outrageous number.

Hundreds of thousands are over-employed & under-worked or simply in 'non-jobs', with the left wing government block-buying left-wing votes for people who will then be too afraid to vote for anyone else.

In parts of the North-East the government accounts for two thirds of the economy!

The state has simply grown too big for us to afford, like it or not, it HAS to be scaled back.

- John T, London

Petra - have you no idea, I think you are just jumping on the old bandwagon called bash the bankers!
Having worked in the private and public sectors I have an idea of both and I know the private sector is no picnic.
When times are tough pay freeze or pay cuts are order of the day in the private sector. We have to work more than a 35 hour week unlike in the public sector, in the private sector we cannot strike and have less sick allowance. Not everyone in the private sector gets huge bonuses and are paid a massive salary and there are lots of us who have to contribute to a pension out of our salary, not by the firm. In the public sector there is a lot of clock watching, paper shuffling and there are some jobs worth who tar others with the same brush, public sectors have unions to help them and back them. Fact is the government has spent too much of our money and now they are in trouble, they did not save during the good times so they could help themselves and us in the bad times. We need both sectors as the private helps pay for the public and we all need teachers, nurses, GP's, road sweepers etc. Instead of trying to pass blame back and forth between private and public sectors as both have "greed and corruption" look at what is happening with the government and the mistakes they made in allowing all this to happen.

- Anne, London

I too have worked in both the public and private sector. Make no mistake, the behaviours of bankers gives no one in the private sector a leg to stand on in criticising the public sector, which may be wasteful and ineffective but at least it doesn't set out to destroy our economy.

However, I know from my time in the public sector that it is atrociously unbalanced an inefficient in its use of our money.

Front line key public sector workers should never have their pay frozen as they do incredible work for relatively low pay. In other areas of the public sector there are areas of high inefficiency which should be removed and resources moved to where they are most needed.

- Jim, London

The public sector has grown into a massively bloated and very expensive monster under Labour,-in most cases its staff are non-productive paper shufflers and target chasers,-my true feelings on the subject wouldn't get printed,-suffice to say if 30% of them were forced out and made to do an honest days work in the private sector,it would make me very happy,-there are too many wasters sitting behind desks costing the taxpayer a fortune,-but worse than that, they will always vote for Labour.

- Jacob, Canterbury England

...Jules don't forget that your bins won't be emptied and your post won't be delivered...

- Andy, london

It is disgusting that the chancellor is trying to freeze pay on the poorer paid - public sector workers - any chance they could freeze their own? Or at least stop asking the hard pressed public to give them a pay rise, or stack up their pensions, or pay for expenses in any form. Maybe if they tried living on £5.73 per hour they might have more sympathy for the people of this country doing real work.

- L Aldcroft, west yorkshire

Phil of Weymouth ....."so all this bleating on about benefits is a joke from people who have had their payrises for the last five years in line and above inflation"

Such totally ill informed statements prove yet again that many (not all I hasten to add)of those working in the public sector have absolutely no idea what's actually been happening in the private sector. If you really think everyone in the private sector has had inflation (or above) rises over the last 5 years then you're living in the same fantasy world inhabited by Gordon Brown.

Everyone can see how the public sector has become over-bloated in the last 10 yrs. Every tax payer will have to pay for the under funded public sector pensions.

Phil - I'm sorry to say that I'm glad you're being made redundant. Just maybe, after 23yrs in the comfort of the piblic sector you'll now get a taste of reality

- Malcolm, London

Jules
I hope you don't have kids in school or a family who needs medical treatment or an ambulance or have anyone who has carers at home if this strike happens...because if you do I have no doubt you will be complaining like crazy!

- Andy, london

Simply have a Bonus freeze on all Public Sector pay.

- William, Hay~Heath UK

I had a little chuckle at this.

This could mean that the Tories may protect the finances of Teacher Keith Price of Luton, rather than his beloved Labour party.

What wonderful irony Keith. Enjoy!

- Dave Davies, Basingstoke, Hants

May I suggest that those public sector workers ask themselves this - Would you prefer to have a pay freeze or be made redundant, and claim the pittance of £64.30 a week Jobseeker's Allowance? I know wish most would choose, so just be thankful you still have a job. A lot of private sector workers are not so fortunate. I hope Darling does not back down. £5bn would go a long way towards public spending.

- Sonia M., St Albans, Herts

Clearly there will have to be pay restraint whether it takes the form of an outright freeze or limiting pay rises strictly to a particular level. But we ought to bear in mind that many front line public and civil servants are not high earners and there is a case for making restraint on average-to-low earners much less severe than that imposed upon high earners. If need be the tax system could be used to achieve the objective if other means fail. What the country cannot afford is a Government which backs off at the first signs of dissent from Trade Unions who do not represent the majority of workers, let alone of the electorate. Those threatening another "winter of discontent" should look to the lesson of history and behave more maturely.

- James Elliott, Eastbourne UK

We need a Maggie Thatcher No2 to sort out the UK's bloated public services. With amazingly cushy perks, guaranteed final salary pensions & a sense of entitlement that would not be out of place in the most aristocratic of Oxbride Private Clubs, somone needs to take a sythe to the rotten structure of self interest and political partonage. My partner recently moved into an administrative role within the NHS after years of working in the private sector. It is a parallel universe worthy of the most ambitious Sci Fi movie. Entrenched ineffecient working practices, enforced tea breaks, "stress related" holiday breaks as part of the package & where clock watching is an olympic sport. Oh yes and the Medical professionals & patients come a distant second on the richter scale of priorities. All funded by the wealth creating sectors of the economy. Of course the public sector unions will threaten to strike if someone threatens the status quo-would turkey vote for christmas? We need fearless,straight talking politicians to take responsibilty & act.

- Dalstonblog, London UK

A public sector pay freeze would be appropriate in the short term. However, what is really needed is a purge of the hundreds of thousands of public sector non-jobs that heve been created by this stinking government in exchange for more votes and more taxpayer misery. This is especially true given the recent revelation that over half of these artificial jobs have been given to immigrants.
Realistically, the only public sector workers who would be dumped in a common-sense review are those who we don't need. Let them strike and see if we miss them; it's more likely that an army of busy-bodying jobsworths would be conspicuous by its absence, rather than being missed.
We need street cleaners, binmen, ambulance, Police and fire services, along with those who directly support their function. There is a whole raft of politically-correct non-jobs that we could well do without, as we did before NuLiebour's Britain-haters created them.

- Keith Lonsdale, Doncaster

Weather we have a pay freeze for the public sector or not, this and the next Government will have to significantly trim expenditure. As a country we are in horrific debt, there is now no real prospect in a pick up in the economy in the short term and our ability to borrow further money from overseas is questionable (nor desirable). The last 10 years saw an explosion in public sector numbers and pay. Now we are bust and we can not afford it any more.

- Jeremy E, Home Counties

Those of you who criticise Public Sector workers and frequently refer to them in perjorative terms, such as `jobsworths',etc., should remember that 200,000 of our Public Service workers are in HM Forces and, at the moment are giving their lives on a regular basis.
Their pay and conditions are not all that great when one considers what we expect of them.
So when you are `mouthing off' about Public Service workers,please remember that not all Public Service workers sit around in offices drinking tea all day.

- Joe Craig, dumfries scotland

So there you have it. We are in a mess but nobody wants to be the one who makes the sacrifice.This will take some tricky thinking by all parties.

- David Smith, london

Do two things. Firstly a complete public sector hiring freeze. Natural wastage and retirements will cut public sector numbers far faster than anything being proposed without anyone even doing anything! The public sector needs to suufer the pay cuts and job cuts the private sector has endured and quit moaning, they do not have a God given right to a job.

- James Macleod Ritchie, Oyster Bay Cove,NY,USA

If you dumb down your educational system do not be surprised if you get New Labour zombies like Petra.
Brown need all the time he can get to propagate an army unthinking people like Petra.

- Minnie Ovens, London, UK

Be bold Alastair. If people in the public sector don't like the idea of a pay freeze then they should leave and try the private sector. Here people are taking cuts and making all kinds of sacrifices. They - the public sector - really are so unrealistic and utterly cocooned. Many could not survive in the private sector. They might as well be told there will be freeze now. It won't be this government that sorts out the industrial strife anyway. Oh well, back to seeing if i can keep this shrinking business afloat and a few people in work. You carry on the cowardly charade Alastair with your semi detached boss.

- David S., Ealing

The winter of discontent cometh. The fat public sector will rule the roost ! Watch this space..............

- Brian Hughes, Llandudno. North Wales. U.K.

Blimey! Where does Petra get her long private sector shopping list? I work in the private sector, just agreed to a salary freeze - have not had an increase for almost 4 years, have no pension, no bonuses, 4 weeks a year holiday, and no sick pay, only SSP and a mortgage to pay. My friend is a teacher one of the supposedly poor key workers - Earns a similar salary to mine, has London weighting, paid sick pay ( unlimited compared to mine) , 13 weeks a year holiday, final salary pension scheme. I am so happy that the private sector continue to make sacrifices for their businesses to survive, whilst the public sector continue to demand more and if they dont get, they threaten to strike! As most of these people are not fit for purpose, I suggest we risk it and then replace them with people who do want to work. Inflation affects us all, not just public sector workers!!

- Maya, London

I have, as a Civil Servant, had five years of below inflation payrises, more targets and efficiency savings which are fed into more managers than workers and bonuses that are consolidated for our Board but capped for us (i.e. the harder we work the less we get year on year). Civil Servants pay is lower than the national average - so all this bleating on about benefits is a joke from people who have had their payrises for the last five years in line and above inflation. I'll willingly take a pay cut if this Government pays me in line with inflation for the last five years and backdates it. I have worked for the Government for 23 years and I am not on the National Average and thats the norm; we are scrutinised more than the private sector. If the Civil Service had been running the banks the crash would've never happened!!

But bleat on ignorant ones. I am hoping that finally this Government listens to you, caps our pay and privatises us - then we'll see how far your taxes go because if you think that Water and Electric privatisation was bad wait until you are talking to a paid private firm for your pension, title deeds to your land or tax benefits!

Me I am facing redundancy - sacrificed because my dept has handed money back to the Treasurey year on year and also paid for my our payrises. I am looking forward to getting out and being paid these huge wages that all you lot have been paid!

- Phil Of Weymouth, Weymouth Dorset

Somehow I don't fear the consequences of a public sector strike. Let them strike and just lay them off. This country needs to get real on income and expenditure.

- Jules_London, london

Naughty, naughty bankers! Are they the same guys that held guns to millions of profligate spenders' heads as they went about their retail-therapy whirlygig credit-card spending sprees?

And if the Unions don't fancy a payfreeze it must be because it's good for the rest of us in the private sector.

- Ted, London

Petra, Croydon Uk

Petra, you are so wrong! Half the public sector jobs are simply not needed....there are too many people pushing papers all day and doing nothing productive or worth while. However, in the private sector, if you are not productive and making money you go bust - simple as that. I work in the public sector and the number of people doing jobs that they really are not capable of doing, beggars belief. I am also amazed at the number of people in my dept. on sick leave for stress. If the job is stressing them out then they clearly cannot do the work and are in the wrong business!! But as you may well know, 'uman rights being what they are, it is very difficult for local councils to actually get rid of people, even if they are hopeless at their jobs.

- Margy, London

Ted has got it right!. Why should DC commit on this matter when he does not need to? The situation will be a whole lot worse / different by the time Gords and the gang have finished their destruction. If DC is as intuitive and in touch as he appears to be, then there will be cuts where they can be made (i.e. unnecessary bureaucracy, Quangos, etc.) As long as he leaves the emergency services and the like alone.

- Xtremely Worried, Unknown

I have worked for a decade in each of the public and private sectors (currently private sector) so I am fully aware of the pros and cons of both. However, those of you who think a pay freeze is a good idea in the public sector (particularly those who've just taken a pay cut) is that during the good times the public sector are left so far behind it is laughable (fire crews and nurses who can't afford to live near their place of work - which when you are working nights or starting work at 7am is important as there is no public transport) and I don't remember the private sector saying 'give the public sector more money' then! It is difficult enough to get people to work in some of the public sectors because of the limited salaries as it is - a pay freeze will deter many - do you really want to have a health service with an even greater shortage of nurses, schools with even larger class sizes? Another problem is that the Government signs public sector workers up to 3 year deals - so what happens when interest rates go up (and they will) - real term pay cuts for public sector workers!! I know there are 'perks' to working in the public sector (eg pensions) but these are rarely the draw for the under 25s when determining what job they want to do - they usually only look at how much money they will get paid at the end of each month.

- Andy, london

Experience of previous Tory Governments suggests that people earning low salaries will be hit by below unflation pay rises to guard against inflation while the fat cats in both the Private and Public Sector will continue to give themselves huge salary rises to catch up with other executives. These rises though well above inflation are well-deserved and necessary to keep over-paid executives from going abroad, despite the fact our Executives are so poor no foreign company would want them.

- Ernie West, Hammersmith England

When will these people get real! I work in the Private Sector, receive a modest income by London Standards, just had to agree to a 20% salary cut otherwise the long established firm which I work for would go under. I am fed up of hearing stories of people on the public sector gravey train moaning about not getting pay rises. The country is in financial turmoil and these people keep expecting pay rises.

- David, London

Andyr,are are you saying that both sectors rely on each other,if you are I agree entirely?

- Colin, Bristol

Too right on DC for refusing to comment: Brown and Darling still have another 10 months to complete their destruction of the UK's finances. How on earth can the Tories predict what they will inherit in 2010?

The current government cannot forecast more than one week ahead without getting it wrong; no-one should be expected to have a crystal ball that can predict what the economy will look like in another 40 weeks.

- Nobby Clark, Perth, the Scottish one

Beware you public service workers and your vocal sympathisers - David Cameron's straight bat reply regarding the freezing of public sector pay (tactically correct in the circumstances of a pre-election period) leaves gaping-mouthed New Labour chancers without an opportunity to scream their discredited mantra about Labour "investemen" and Tory "cuts".

New Labout have finally been rumbled and are on their way to a much-deserved and long-term political oblivion.

- Ted, London

The reason that public sector salaries are lower than the private sector is that public sector workers get alternative benefits - less pressure, longer holidays, flexi time etc. You can't have it all.

- Mr Opinion, London Village

Is this the same Mr Cameron who has been saying people are disillusioned by the way decisions are made by the like of QUANGOs instead of those elected and thus they can't change anything?

Well we know why politicians have done that don't we? To get them off the hook of making decisions which might be unpopular.

Now here is a classic problem of that type. Public sector pay. What is Cameron saying? Leave pay levels to be decided by the likes of a QUANGO.

No change there then.

- Mike Newland, London, England

Petra/Andy,
You really have no idea do you? Its the private sector that creates the wealth to pay for the public sector. Without the private sector, there is no public sector. The private sector has to generate the money to pay for all of this, and the private sector is longer able to generate tax receipts because of the recession.

In this case you have to either cut the public sector or increase borrowing. Increasing borrowing isnt free, it has to be paid back (by the private sector again through taxes). And who is going to pay it back? The generations that follow us.

So due to public sector greed, you are forcing later generations to pay for it.

- Andyr, St Ives, Cambs

Petra - judging by your comments, I'm guessing you've no experience of the private sector, your list is a joke. And besides, what about the benefits public sector get? Plenty of sickies, overtime/days off in lieu, protection from being incompetent, massively subsidised on-site childcare, gold plated pensions...the list goes on.

Based on first hand experience of dealing with the admin side of the public sector, you could replace four of them with one person from the private sector and get a better outcome and reduce costs in the process. Total job security breeds contempt - bring in some true competition and let's see the results.

- James, London

Petra, Croydon UK - I work in the private sector and have enjoyed none of the perks you have stated. This year I had to take a 10% salalry reduction as well.
I must be in the wrong job, sector...and the wrong country come to think of it!

- Smb, London, UK

Public sector workers are, in like for like jobs, generally paid less than their private sector counterpart (nurses in the NHS get paid less than private hospital nurses, etc) and have to put up with worse working environments (crumbling schools, hospitals, etc) yet when the private sector makes an almighty cock up the public sector workers have their salaries frozen!! I appreciate that cuts need to be made but why not get rid of the high number of high paid executives/administrators rather than further reduce the incentives for people to take on the vital work to keep our country functioning - nurses, ambulance crews, fire crews, police, teachers, social workers, carers, etc...

- Andy, london

Public sector workers enjoy flexible hours, more annual leave and very generous pension schemes. Hence, their salaries have been lower than the private sector workers. However, the private sector workers can not continue to support this via their taxes. We don't all work in the banking industry and enjoy massive bonuses. The Government has got to stop employing so many people to make the unemployment figure look more attractive. Council workers salaries have to be frozen. We on a downward spiral and this Government has to stop spending. I would rather it be a salary freeze, than schools and hospitals be affected by spending cuts.

- Jk, London

Let me get this right. It's the greed and corruption of the private sector, in the form of dishonest banks, mortgage fraud, people borrowing beyond their means leading to ridiculously high house prices and negative equity that have gotten us into this mess. Add to that the generous non-contribution pensions schemes available in major private industry (it's only recently that some companies have decided that their employees should contribute 1.5% of their salary to the schemes!!)yearly bonuses, company share schemes, private health care and in many cases subsidised loans and mortgages. And the great solution is to '..freeze the pay of the public sector workers..' who have for many years contributed between 6/11% of their salaries into a pension scheme, do not receive any bonuses, or share in company profits and whose salaries, in general, are below those in the private sector. For years workers in the private sector were increasingly well rewarded during the good times, whilst those in the public sector saw little or no such rewards. Now that the economy has hit a downturn some commentators want public sector workers to feel a disproportionate amount of financial pain, even though the did not benefit from the boom times.

- Petra, Croydon Uk

Anoither vote loser davey, yeachers and nurses yes, council workers NO NO NO.

Cut council workers salaries immedialtley, most are not fit for purpose.

- P Staker, London

It would seem that the people who have been inflating their salaries over the last ten years have been the Bankers and Executives who are now holding Bonuses are Back Parties after the Taxpayer bail out. These payments should be taxed at 80 percent and attempts at avoidance should be treated as a criminal act and lead to 100 percent confiscation and a short stay in prison. I'm sure that this would be popular with the majority of people who have not caused the recession.

- Ernie West, Hammersmith England

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