Jack Frost highlights importance of public services during cold
snap
30 November 2010
Cameron challenged on which services he
would axe as UK freezes
As Britain freezes, the mythical figure of Jack Frost
demonstrates the importance of public sector workers who carry on
regardless in Arctic conditions.
Unite, the largest union in the country, said today (30
November 2010) that public sector employees, such as road gritters,
and district nurses, were the invisible thread that kept the roads
open and the vulnerable cared for.
Unite national organiser for the services sector, Peter
Allenson, challenged David Cameron to say which public services
holding Britain together during the premature onslaught of winter
would he cut: “The government has embarked on the dangerous folly
of cutting local authority spending by 28 per cent over the next
four years, which could result in an estimated 140,000 council jobs
being lost.
”The early winter antics of Jack Frost have shown the importance
of public services in keeping Britain running – yet the cold
economics of George Osborne’s austerity package looks set to
decimate the very public services that we are now relying on during
this icy snap.
”There needs to be a thaw in the government’s thinking and it
needs to reverse its proposed cuts to local government and the NHS
– as it is these services that are so doubly necessary
now.”
Unite represents 250,000 public sector employees.
- In English folklore, Jack Frost appears as an elfish creature
who personifies crisp, cold, winter weather; a variant of father
winter.
ENDS
Notes to news editors:
For further information, please contact Shaun Noble, Unite
communications officer, on 07768 693940
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