Panorama: Because We're Worth It - The Taxpayers Rich List

With promised cuts to the public sector by David Cameron looming ahead, Panorama decides to look at the highest paid in the public sector and try to determine if those involved are worth the big pay checks.  Yet the programme offers no conclusive back up as to whether these jobs should be cut, by showing the importance of some of the jobs and the implications of cutting others.

Vivian White begins the show by giving random people on the street pictures of the top eight highest earners in the public sector and asking these participants to rate who they think are paid the highest.  Those shown include David Cameron, the director of the BBC and various civil servants.  Despite most people’s assumptions that our Prime Minister is the top earner, David Cameron turns out to be at the bottom; the director of the BBC takes the top spot.  It would seem somewhere along the way that some priorities were lost; surely running the country is far more important than entertaining the country?

Panorama goes on to investigate some of the particular cases.  Some of the institutions they wish to interview refuse comment, which says everything really.  However, three particular cases stand out, the first being a head teacher who gets paid more than the Prime Minister; yet he has turned around two of the country’s schools, one of them going from the bottom of the rankings to being in the top 5% in the country.  The second is the Chief Constable of Cleveland (an extremely poor area situated in the North East of England) who also gets paid more than the Prime Minister. Yet individuals in his community all agree on his invaluableness in turning their community round, emphasising that their streets are now safe. Then, thirdly, there is the BBC, the head of which is the highest paid person in the public sector.  A representative defends the BBC, maintaining that they have had to sustain cuts too and that her boss never takes a bonus. Obviously biased, her views must be taken with a pinch of salt, but the implications of her interview are discussed later on.

Consequently, these three examples point out two questions that need to be confronted when discussing the public sector and its pay.  The first is the question of worth; how much do these bodies in the public sector deserve their pay and does it reflect the public’s investment in them? For the first two examples, it is obvious from those on the receiving ends, who see the effects of both the head teacher and the Chief Constable, that they, as the public, see these two men’s pay as justified, as they have both made valuable contributions to the community; they have proved their worth.  The BBC, on the other hand, has the concept of worth ascribed to it in a different sense. It is sadly true that the majority of the population do know more about the workings of the BBC than the parliament, thus the BBC’s worth is dictated by the amount of interest invested in it by the public.  The second question is how to keep people in the public sector, a point made by the representative from the BBC.  For her, it is very hard to give people an incentive to work in the public sector when they could be paid much more in the private sector, thus competitive payment packages must be offered.  Now, the teacher in the previous example maintains he would still do his job if he did get a pay cut, yet one can’t help but feel that there are many who would not have this attitude.

Thus, as regards the first question of worth, one begins to wonder if public spending should be cut at all.  Yet, no one can deny that Labour’s funding of the public sector was excessive and that cuts are vital.  And of course, no one is a fan of extortionate taxes, expensive license fees and such like.  As regards the question of keeping people in the public sector however, there becomes a fine line between cutting spending for the good of the economy to cutting it so much that everyone leaves for the private sector.  And thus we are left in a bit of a pickle; from here will come various economic theories on how to proceed, but I, as a mere literature student, can offer no solid answer as to how cuts to the public sector should proceed, or whether they should be cut at all.

Roisin O’Brien