Civil servants striking today join a mounting wave of industrial action which shows that Britain’s workers are not prepared to tolerate Tory-imposed austerity any longer.

Following Monday’s massive NHS walkout, public servants are sending a clear message to politicians that years of pay freezes and below-inflation rises are pushing household budgets to breaking point.

That’s clear from the New Economics Foundation’s “real Britain index” (RBI) — which indicates the true cost of living for working people — in contrast to the government’s preferred consumer prices index (CPI) measure of inflation, which dropped to 1.2 per cent in September.

Trade unions have, rightly, argued that the government and employers should assess pay increases according to the retail prices index, which includes major costs such as housing that CPI leaves out.

But both generalised inflation measures ignore the way people on lower incomes spend proportionally more on the basics — food, somewhere to live, energy, transport.

The cost of these essentials continues to rise above inflation, making a mockery of the government’s “all in it together” rhetoric and translating into misery for millions.

Civil servants have been hit hard by the government’s spending cuts, with tens of thousands put out of work and another 10,000 job cuts planned for the next three years.

As in other areas the Con-Dem coalition’s official plea that it is cutting costs to address the deficit rings hollow — since one of the worst-hit departments is HMRC, which has lost almost half its entire workforce since 2005 and faces another £3 billion in spending reductions.

Laying off thousands of tax-collectors when Britain faces a £120bn gap in avoided and evaded tax is financial nonsense.

So were plans to flog off HM Land Registry, which pays an annual dividend to the Treasury.

Civil servants’ union PCS has fought back — securing a £1bn reinvestment in HMRC to tackle tax avoidance and seeing off the threatened Land Registry sale.

But a combination of pay cuts, increasing pension contributions and inflation has seen public servants lose up to a fifth of their income in real terms since the Con-Dem coalition took power.

This is no accident — but part of a project to devalue public service and break the morale of government employees.

The Tories’ long-term aim is clear — the end of the Civil Service as we know it and its reduction to a rump body doling out contracts to profit-hungry privateers rather than an effective administrative organisation.

Defending our civil servants and supporting the PCS members demanding a fair pay rise today is a priority for the left.

So is hammering home their message and ours this Saturday on the TUC’s Britain Needs a Pay Rise march and rally.

Working people should not have been made to pay for the bankers’ crisis. 

Only united action will reverse the tremendous damage done by the Con-Dem government and force the Labour Party to drop its austerity-lite fixation and put ordinary people’s interests first.

The show of public support to midwives and others on the picket lines on Monday suggests the British people have had enough of this government’s attacks on hard-pressed public-sector workers who provide essential services day in, day out. 

This week’s strikes and Saturday’s demonstration may be the point when the government finds out that workers of this country have had enough of its vicious policies.