Wanting to be all right, Jack

You have to wonder if anyone in Whitehall, the civil service or the public sector has any inkling of what life is like in the real world.

We have the Lords where it seems votes are for sale to the highest bidder then the Commons where our MPs have their snouts so far into the expenses trough they must have developed the ability to breathe through another orifice.

Then comes the civil service where the Crown Prosecution Service shells out £250 a head to anyone who turns up for work when it snows.

Hands up anyone else - you know, in the real world - who got paid for turning up in the snow. Management might have shelled out for the odd bacon butty or told staff to go early but that would be about it.

I do hope any of the two million unemployed who were down to sign on when it snowed got a bonus on their £62 or so a week if they made it in.

Now we have teachers demanding a pay rise of 10 per cent or £3,000 a year with one of their number claiming she is quitting to teach abroad because of terrible pay, she is only on £26,000 a year after four years in the job.

Hands up anyone - those who still have a job only please - who is on less than £26,000 after more than four years and while we are at it chuck in anyone who has 13 weeks holiday a year and a guaranteed gold plated pension scheme?

Good teachers do an excellent job but let's get real. When the people in the real world - those who pay public sector wages - are facing salary and hours cut or no pay rises at all, are being made redundant or living in fear for their jobs and pensions then it's time to just be grateful you have cake at all and not be shouting for a bigger slice.