The captains of industry will set out their wish list calling for the implementation of the so-called structural reforms, which is a euphemism for the politics of the Right, the true meaning of which is well known to the workers: that is, more precarious work, lower salaries, longer working life and working hours, later pensionable age, the dismantling and subsequent liberalisation and privatisation of public services, with the accent on energy and communications, social security, health and education, and research, with exploitation, unemployment and poverty following in its wake.

I regret that my attempts to qualify the statements of some Members and to re-establish the truth did not find favour with the Committee on Women’s Rights and Equal Opportunities and, above all, I regret that the rapporteur repeated certain falsehoods, in particular that which would have us believe that working hours continue to be extended in the European Union when, in the majority of Member States, the opposite is true.

Time spent waiting for public transport or walking is felt to be more ‘expensive’ than time spent in the car (in other words, time wasted in traffic jams irritates people less than the same length of time spent using public transport); time spent commuting is not assessed, and time wasted in this way goes unnoticed; measured in money terms, judgments of shortening or lengthening journey times are not symmetrical (only far more expensive private transport is assigned the same value as cheaper but perhaps slightly slower public transport); drivers generally under-estimate the true costs of their journeys and tend to base their assessmen ...[+++]ts solely on fuel costs; people have a tendency to ‘defend’ their choices by underrating alternatives which they reject.

In the case of health care systems that take the form of "national health services", it is theoretically easier to control expenditure (which is naturally budget expenditure) but the pressure of demand results in longer waiting lists [19] which can show that the supply of health care is inadequate.

I hope at some point Reformers will come clean with the Canadian people and say without equivocation that they want the ticker to keep running.