on the take again
It’s a fact that gold-plated ‘final salary’ pensions have long since been the sole privilege of the public sector. The private sector jettisoned them decades ago when it became obvious that they are, from a commercial perspective, financially unaffordable. Irrespective of who/what actually caused the current global crisis, the simple and incontrovertible truth remains that the UK cannot to support its changing population dynamics. The good news is we are all living longer but the bad news is there’s a price to pay: we need to remain economically active for longer and pay more into our pensions to support longer retirements. It’s not a political driven action but an economic one. I’m sorry but I also don’t buy the ‘public service’ ethic argument or the belief that public sector salaries are markedly lower than those within the private, as, evidence has repeatedly shown, they’re not. As a UK taxpayer I just want to see everyone treated equally and fairly irrespective of political or economic stance.
And don’t forget we’re all in this together. What d’ya mean you don’t think we are? Ah, I guess you’re referring to the group of lucky so-and-so public sector employees whose pension arrangements make the rest of ours look a tad miserly by comparison? I suspect you mean the group who require just 15 years’ service to earn an annual pension of £24,000; the group to whom the taxpayers contribute three times more than the members themselves; the group who’s wives, should they peg it, receive a lump sum four times their annual final salary and five-eights of their pension. Oh, that group! Our dearly beloved MPs.
The fact that last year they promised to do something about their own ludicrous platinum-plated pensions seems to have slipped their collective minds. No surprise there me-thinks. The sooner this is blatantly brought to the public’s attention the better and it surely would act as the catalyst in provoking the angry scenes seen over the last couple of years in respect of their obscene and criminal take on expenses. Self-serving, devious, corrupt, pious and hypocritical doesn’t do them justice.
In it together? My arse.
