I nearly choked on my porridge this morning when I read the following story:=> Gordon Brown to scrap final salary pensions for MPs
But we must give credit where credit is due.
For the moment I will forget that Gordon Brown has deliberately destroyed the British pension system, stealing $175 billion from it in the last 12 years, thus wrecking the pensions of millions, so he could pump up the gold-plated pensions of the coercive sector.
If it is actually true that he is putting MPs on the same footing as the people who are forced to pay their wages, so that he can then get all coercive sector people off gold-plated pensions too, so that they then own a stake in growing the economy rather than wrecking it, then I will be fulsome in my praise.
Obviously, if this is just a stunt to grab a headline, and this plan runs into the usual sand of all such plans designed to shrink the state, then Maturin Towers will be obliged to heap the usual pile of offal upon Gordon's fat head.
Let us see which it will be.
Prediction: This is just a stunt and MPs will vote the measure down. If for some bizarre reason it does get passed, due to political pressure, coercive sector strikes will then keep the rest of the coercive sector on gold-plated pensions. What's the point being in the coercive sector if you can't coerce a gold-plated pension for yourself? You may as well do something productive for a living.
1 comment:
Its a stunt. Labour talked about reforming public sector pension 2 or 3 years ago but backed down when public sector unions threatened strike action.
Yes this could be a brave second attempt but they are putting the proposal forward at the tail end of their terms in govt. It strikes me Brown has thrown it onto the policy table as a gauntlett to Cameron: if Cameron gets into office Labour can taunt him across the despatch box if he doesn't pick it up and implement the much needed reforms. Okay if it gets a Tory govt to deal with this problem then all well and good but I personally wouldn't give Brown any credit for it - esp. as his main legacy is going to be a vastly more socialised (albeit wrecked) economy with bank nationalisations galore.
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