Writing on her blog on Saturday Salma Yaqoob predicted that Birmingham City council was going to get rid of 1400 jobs. She was wrong. It looks like it’s going to be 2000 plus a wage freeze for all 25 000 council staff. One of the groups of workers who have been targeted for the chop is care home workers. That’s on top of 800 jobs which have already been cut by the Lib Dem / Tory coalition that runs the city.

In the twilight of a Labour government the city’s Chief Executive Stephen Hughes said “Hughes said: “The scale of cuts is likely to be of a magnitude that no one has seen. My life in local government goes back to 1979 and there has never been anything as bad as this.”

In its way the response from West Midlands regional Unison official Tony Rabiotti is even more dismal.

"There is absolutely no need to make 2,000 people redundant, given the huge number of agency workers employed by the council. The trade unions will do everything we can to fight these outrageous proposals.”

His message seems to be “sack the agency staff”. You can supply your own expletive.

Salma’s response is more encouraging. She says “A number of local trade unions have called for a protest, and they want to make it a noisy one, so bring your pots and pans! See you there.”

Protest at Council Cuts, Tuesday 23 February, 4pm – 6pm, Birmingham Council House, Victoria Square. Called by UNISON, UNITE, GMB, UCATT, AMICUS.