Bread tomorrow. Or the day after. Or the day after that again. But forget about the jam.

An interesting flurry of stories at the weekend and early this week that suggest a certain softening up of areas in advance of the budget and the election (whenever that is eventually held). How else to interpret the stuff about the public-sector pay cuts being reversed where straight out of the gate FG TDs are coming out against that idea. As it happens I find it hard to believe that there is any serious belief that there will be a reversal (and in the SBP at the weekend there was a similar scepticism, with the point being made that the supposed time line is so long into the future that it’s almost meaningless). Moreover I’d not at all be surprised if the idea was precisely to raise the issue, generate public and political hostility to a degree that any reversals will be much smaller than first flagged. Win win for the government in that because it can position itself as trying to do something while not having to actually do very much, and simultaneously give a bone of sorts to the Labour Party in its relations with the unions. All that said I suspect that many will see through this fairly transparent charade.

As it happens I’m amazed its even been raised at all. There’s relatively little pressure on the government on the issue – certainly not that much from the unions, and perhaps this is an LP thing, as they gaze warily at the multiple threats that now exist on their left. It could also be a feint – Eoghan Murphy perhaps gave it away when he said that:

he did not think it was wise, and also said it was too early, saying the Government’s priorities should lie in the tax area, where the benefit would be universal and not confined to one sector.

It’s all too easy to envisage the unions being bought off yet again (albeit in a slightly different context) with the promise of tax cuts, as they were in the early 2000s in relation to lower paid private sector workers. And perhaps I’m alone in this, but I think the focus on the wage aspect alone of the processes we’ve seen over the past few years in the public sector is perhaps problematic. Without for a second denying the impact that has had, the conditions element where increased hours and so on have been introduced is arguably more pernicious. I doubt there’s any effort being made to change that by the unions and yet those new conditions will exist for considerably longer than the pay cuts (at least so it would seem). And Howlin’s rhetoric appears solidly focused on wage cuts.

And another story/straw in the wind? The one about SF employing ‘far more officials and staff’ than the other ‘four biggest parties’. Sure, but I think they’re looking at the wrong model of party activity. More profitable, so to speak, would be an examination of the smaller parties with national representation, who likewise have larger staffs. And SF points to the fact that its reps are paid less (or donate more) than those of other parties. This appears to be reflected in the figures too:

Labour has the highest average salary per employee of almost €50,000, with Fine Gael next at €46,000. Fianna Fáil’s average is €32,000 and for Sinn Féin it is €22,000.

But whatever about that it’s a handy old line to put about, that SF is somehow gaming the system, or worse. What’s that, the sound of party political activity restarting (as distinct from government activity which never stops) after the silly season? Could be!