British unions chief warns against spending cutsBritain's trade unions leader warned Sunday that government cuts in public spending would cause a second wave of recession and mass unemployment, scarring young people for life. "Public spending cuts will provoke a double-quick, double-dip recession double-dip recession An extended decline in economic activity following an aborted recovery from a previous recession. A relatively weak economic recovery sometimes causes investors to worry about the economy entering another recession. ," Brendan Barber Brendan Barber (b. 3 April 1951, Southport, Lancashire) has been the General Secretary of Britain's Trades Union Congress (TUC) since June 2003. He was educated at St Mary's College, Sefton and City University, where he earned a BA Hons in social sciences in 1974. said on the eve On the Eve (Накануне in Russian) is the third novel by famous Russian writer Ivan Turgenev, best known for his short stories and the novel Fathers and Sons. of the Trades Union Congress (TUC TUC (in Britain and South Africa) Trades Union Congress TUC n abbr (BRIT) (= Trades Union Congress) → federación nacional de sindicatos TUC n abbr (Brit) (= ) annual conference being held in the port city of Liverpool The term City of Liverpool may refer to: England
"Unemployment could well exceed four million (in Britain) and it would take many years before there was any chance of returning to anything like full employment," said Barber, the TUC general secretary. "That would scar for life a whole generation of young people." Britain's unions face a tough future as recession threatens to cut public spending on key services such as schools and hospitals. Furthermore, the governing centre-left Labour Party led by Prime Minister Gordon Brown is on course to be defeated by the main opposition centre-right Conservatives, opinion polls show, at an upcoming general election. The nation's unions provide the bulk of funding for the Labour Party and fear for their future should the Conservatives win the election, which must be held by mid-2010. Former Conservative prime minister Margaret Thatcher Noun 1. Margaret Thatcher - British stateswoman; first woman to serve as Prime Minister (born in 1925) Baroness Thatcher of Kesteven, Iron Lady, Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Thatcher had famously crushed the unions' power during the 1980s. "A double-dip recession would not just be deeper -- but also longer. Prolonged mass unemployment would not just do economic damage, but have terrible social effects," Barber told reporters on Sunday. "I don't think that Britain is broken, but this would be one way to break it. Last time we suffered slash and burn This article is about the agricultural practice of slash and burn. For the military tactic, see scorched earth. Slash and burn refers to the cutting and burning of forests or woodlands to create fields for agriculture or pasture for livestock, or for a economics we had riots in the streets here in Liverpool. "I make no prediction that this would happen again, but I do know that prolonged mass unemployment will have terrible effects on social cohesion, family break-up and the nation's health," added Barber. Rather than government cutting public spending, Barber said Britain's ballooning budget deficit caused by the recession could be tackled by scrapping controversial nuclear defence and identity card projects. Additionally, money could be saved by further increasing taxes on the wealthy. Britain has yet to follow France, Germany and Japan out of recession in the wake of the financial crisis, as the number of unemployed people Noun 1. unemployed people - people who are involuntarily out of work (considered as a group); "the long-term unemployed need assistance" unemployed plural, plural form - the form of a word that is used to denote more than one in the country heads towards three million. Britain's Business Secretary Peter Mandelson was on Monday to deliver a tough message on public spending in a speech to the think-tank Progress. According to Britain's domestic Press Association news agency, Mandelson was to warn of "less spending in some programmes" and to admit that some government projects may have to be scrapped. Prime Minister Brown was meanwhile set to tell union delegates in Liverpool on Tuesday that the government has "to make tough choices in public spending", according to extracts from his speech leaked to media. On Friday, Brown hosted union leaders for private talks, described by The Times newspaper as "a charm offensive... to pacify pac·i·fy tr.v. pac·i·fied, pac·i·fy·ing, pac·i·fies 1. To ease the anger or agitation of. 2. To end war, fighting, or violence in; establish peace in. Labour's disgruntled dis·grun·tle tr.v. dis·grun·tled, dis·grun·tling, dis·grun·tles To make discontented. [dis- + gruntle, to grumble (from Middle English gruntelen; see trade union paymasters, who are warning that the party may already have lost the next election". Brown's office said the talks had been "constructive". The TUC brings together more than 50 unions representing about six million mostly public-sector workers. 
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