There but for the grace of Greece

Cartoon by abbé, from DominGo magazine 'dedicated to workers and pensioners'

The dominoes begin to fall. It was Greece last week, now it's Spain. Portugal and Ireland are not far behind, and Britain cuts back, too, after 'unsatisfactory' elections.

Cut, cut, cut. But cut what and from where and, more important, from whom? From here, some of the most drastic measures in Europe:

• Cut civil service salaries at all levels by an average of 5% in 2010 and freeze them in 2011. Includes autonomous regions and local councils.

• Cut back government grants, etc. to autonomous regions and local councils by €1,200 million.

• Freeze pensions at 2010 levels; no inflation increase.

• Eliminate 'birth check' of €2,500 per birth, in 2011.

• Cut state public investment by €6,000 million between 2010 and 2011.

• Cut back pharmacy costs by reducing prescriptions.

• Cut development grants and subsidies by €600 million.

• Eliminate retroactive payments for 'Carers Law'. Any retroactive rights to be paid over 5 years.

• Restructure financial (i.e. banking and building societies) system.

As usual, it's the 'little man', in Spain and Greece at any rate (don't know about Britain, it's all too confusing), who get battered by cutbacks. Among many other measures to be taken by Zapatero's government  there is no word about increasing taxes on the rich. Well, you'd expect that from a supposedly socialist government, wouldn't you?

Yet at the top of the heap sit the fat cats who made vast, often illegal and fraudulent profits on land speculation throughout the country. Even Zapatero admits it: "Those who have had nothing to do with the recession, who did nothing to create it, are the ones who will have to make the greatest efforts to get out of it." Great. Another good socialist concept.

If this sounds like revenge, so be it. If it sounds punitive, so be it.

As I've said before, I am no economist (ask my bank manager), but with employment at 20%, the highest in Europe, cutting back as it is proposed doesn't seem to add up, whatever the ECB, the IMF or the stock markets say. Or indeed, whatever Obama has to say: he called Zapatero to 'discuss' the situation earlier in the week. If cutbacks cause more unemployment, as they will, up go the unemployment costs. Elementary, dear Zapatero. So who gets cut back after that? The unemployed, of course!

Maybe not. To be fair, the government also announced that Spanish MPs' and Senators salaries will be cut by 15%, about which the left wing opposition, Izquierda Unida, suggested should "go a little further" by extending the measure to the top echelon at banks, building societies and large businesses (Note: Did you know that Telefónica is the largest telecommunications company in the world? Or that it and Endesa, Banco Santander, BBVA and Repsol, among others, are in the top 500 world conglomerates?)

Spanish unions are already calling for 'mobilizations', a day after the cutbacks were announced, with a nationwide civil service strike planned for June 2nd, and rumours of a national strike in the offing soon, too. They should get a lot of people out into the streets with over 4 million unemployed...  The best we can hope for is that nobody dies as a result, as those three bank employees did in Greece.

In Spain the term 'public servant' is not used. Instead, it's funcionario público, or 'public functionary'. The problem is in the word funcionario. Over the years this has taken on a peyorative meaning, often illustrated by the person you want to see at the Town Hall, who just happens to have gone out for breakfast at 10 and won't be back until after noon if at all. But as Ignacio Fernández Toxo, head of the Comisiones Obreras union, said this morning: "A funcionario is not only [the one described above] but also the doctor at the health centre, his nurses, the policeman on the corner, and the woman who cleans the street outside your house." I understand that in Britain, these are called 'frontline services', but I don't understand Britain, so better leave this one alone (until my next post, which is likely to be about something I don't understand).

The peyorative funcionario term, could well be applied to Zapatero and his ministers, who were probably out having coffee several months ago when everyone was warning them about the recession and its consequences and about the drastic measures that would have to be taken. Yesterday, they woke up and smelled the coffee. Late, as ever.

And speaking of something I don't understand: why have the stock markets got us by the Ed Balls? I don't own stock; I don't gamble, legally or otherwise. I don't even read the FT, The Economist, the WSJ, El Economista, Expansión or anything like that. Maybe that's why I don't understand. But do you, Average Citizen?
(c)  Alexander Bewick 2010