Public service increments must be reformed

The British chancellor of the exchequer, George Osborne, delivered one of his two annual financial statements to parliament last week, and demonstrated again that austerity is not confined to Ireland.

Osborne's spending review, including £11.5 billion of cuts in the next year, extends the big squeeze on public spending in Britain into its sixth year. As in Ireland, Britain's age of austerity has been longer and harsher than anyone imagined. And it's not ...