Is global capitalism against the public sector?

I was on a panel last week at the Midlands SOLACE conference, taking part in a discussion about the future of chief executives but much of the debate was about the bad press councils get in the national media.
I thought one of the panellists, Kim Ryley, chief executive of Shropshire Council and president of SOLACE made an interesting observation. Kim had just returned from Australia and Canada where he had been invited by the local authority chiefs' associations there.
He maintained that local government received the same bad press and kicking as over there. He added: 'It's not just a UK issue. They don't have Eric Pickles but the language is the same. Global capitalism doesn't want to pay the taxes for the public sector and the media is happy to promulgate that view.'
Now we know that the Pickles/Shapps offensive against 'non jobs', chiefs' salaries and alleged waste in the UK is all part of their trashing the sector's reputation to avoid it receiving any public sympathy over spending cuts. But the idea that the private sector and big business/high finance internationally as well is also against taxes for public services and is running a campaign through a pliant media to denigrate the public sector is certainly a thought-provoking one.
Personally I don't believe it is clear cut as that. The private sector is a huge supplier to the public sector and as we know spending cuts have been a body blow to many companies with public sector contracts. The two sectors are entwined. But of course the views of businesses on the ground do not necessarily tally with those of multinationals for whom countries are flags of convenience and taxes to pay for their public services are a nuisance to be avoided. We may hear more of this discussion.

How good are you on your key stats?

The public lives in blissful ignorance about how councils are funded and where their money goes. So the latest figures from the DCLG ought to provide some illumination In fact some of these stats ought to be issued in every council's annual report.
The DCLG issues its Local Government Statistics for England every year and this is the 22nd . They include figures from the previous year, in this case 2009/10 and projections for the next one. So here are some questions to test your knowledge of the sector:
A: What proportion of council funding comes from central government?
B: What percentage of total spending goes on education and social services?
C: What was the total local government spend for 2009/10?
D: What percentage of total public spending goes on local government?
E: How much does local government cost each taxpayer after taking out non-grant funding?
F: By how much has Band D council tax increased since it started in 1993?
Did you get them right?
Here are the answers: A: Two thirds. B: 54%. C: £168bn. D: a quarter. E: £2,490. F: 2.3 times the rate of inflation.
For these and other fascinating facts and figures just go to our Intelligence section on the website for a summary and link to the full report at http://www.info4local.gov.uk/documents/publications/1912292