Why no pay freeze ?

We are being told by Gordon Brown that senior civil servants, dopctors etc will have to show restraint with a 1.5% pay increase next year, when we are told that inflation is near zero.

So that's a real terms pay increase at times of national economic crisis.

Surely the only responsible thing would be a pay freeze ?

Or perhaps, like the Bank of England's pension fund, they know inflation is coming back ?

Or perhaps the rising CPI inflation has them spooked ?

Any way you put it we are either being conned or lied to.