The recently honoured Chief Fire Officer of Devon and Somerset, Paul Young, is pressing ahead with plans to remove full time fire cover from towns across Devon and Somerset, echoing cuts that have had fatal consequences elsewhere, such as Newquay.Devon Socialist Party completely condemns this dangerous penny-pinching and fully supports the fight of the FBU and all other local campaigns against the cuts. It is obvious to us that the proposed cuts are universally unpopular. We have collected many signatures against the cuts across Devon. Some opponents of cuts try to plead a special case for their town. We have seen this in Exmouth and Ilfracombe. This is not only a strategy that would disastrously undermine the unity that is needed to bin the proposal, but also if successful would only give the town a temporary reprieve until the next round of cuts.
We call for unity across Devon and Somerset against all cuts. We stand against measures which seem to be aimed at opening the Fire Service up for privatisation, which FBU general secretary, speaking at our Socialism 2007 event in November, made clear is top of the Government's agenda for the Fire Service, just as it is for the NHS, education and postal services.
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There was a similar feeling across some of the various groups at the recent anti-school closures protest in Caenarfon, North Wales - but some parents understood that even some closures would invite the council to come back later for others, and leave everyone in a worse position in reagrds to things like class sizes.
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