Bank of England warns families to expect fall in living standards

For "an effective pay cut" read "the Pound will be devalued and therefore commodities and goods purchased on world markets -- so almost everything then -- will get more expensive, even as you are forced to accept flat wages, or more likely in fact a pay cut".

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/7450009/Bank-of-England-warns-families-to-expect-fall-in-living-standards.html

Meanwhile, public sector unionised workers strike en masse to protest at not getting a good enough pay rise offer. Boo hoo. Where exactly do they think the money is going to come from? The private sector is crippled and tax receipts are accordingly significantly down. It is already impossible for the government to continue paying for all of their staff as it is, without pay rises. The union leadership need to grow themselves a brain between them, either that or they know the situation well enough but are telling lies to their members. There are going to unavoidably be significant public sector job losses, and if staff who will remain are to get pay rises, that simply means there will be even more jobs lost to enable that to be possible. That is the mathematics of the situation. If the unions truly wanted to protect their members jobs, they would explain the issue to them properly and then negotiate viable wage cuts so that people can keep their jobs.