Welcome to the briefing room with me, David Oronovich.

In this week's program, we're asking why the government has lifted the cap on public sector pay.

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That's a pile of crap and it's not good enough.

Was the blunt reaction of the PCS union boss, Mark Sawatka,

to the news that the government was lifting its 1% cap on public sector pay

for police and prison officers in England and Wales.

Back in 2010, in the wake of the Great Crash,

a new coalition government announced the idea of the cap like this.

I know there are many dedicated public sector workers who work very hard and did not cause the recession,

but they must share the burden as we pay to clean it up.

Seven years on, the question we're asking this week is what will happen if the pay cap is lifted for all public sector workers,

and if it is, how much should it be lifted, and for who? And who pays? Step into the briefing

room and find out. First into the briefing room is the BBC's Ruth Alexander,

who looks at what's happened to public sector pay since 2010.

Back in 2010, riots on the streets of Athens

formed the backdrop to political debate in Britain.

Greece stands as a warning of what happens to countries that lose their credibility

or whose governments pretend that difficult decisions can somehow be avoided.

...