Address this unfair divide
When it comes to pensions, Britain has never been such a divided nation. In the public sector, retirement at 60 is the norm and pensions are rock-solid secure and index-linked for life. In the private sector, pensions funds are collapsing, final-salary schemes have been largely abandoned and workers face the prospect of slogging to to 65 or even 70.
When it comes to pensions, Britain has never been such a divided nation. In the public sector, retirement at 60 is the norm and pensions are rock-solid secure and index-linked for life. In the private sector, pensions funds are collapsing, final-salary schemes have been largely abandoned and workers face the prospect of slogging to to 65 or even 70.
The bitterest blow of all is that the gold-plated pensions for Whitehall and town-hall staff are being subsidised by workers in the real world of profit and loss.
The latest figures suggests that every household in England is now paying £200 per year towards public-sector pensions.
And this is only the beginning. As public-sector salaries rise inexorably, automatically linked to inflation, so the cost of these pensions will rise.
What this means, in effect is that in a street of 10 households, six will be working well into their 60s to pay for the feather-bedded retirement of the other four who happen to work in the public sector.
So teachers, police officers, nurses and civil servants put their feet up and plan the next cruise while shop assistants, office staff, lorry drivers and factory workers foot the bill.
This is deeply unfair. The system must be reformed. Public-sector unions would object, but many council or government workers recognise the current system is wrong and, in any case, might prefer to work on full pay to 65 rather than take an early pension.
Council tax payers are already struggling to pay their bills. The threatened revaluation will pile on the financial agony.
A Government with an ounce of courage would have grasped this nettle years ago.
But when MPs and ministers enjoy the best gold-plated pensions of all, is anyone surprised that they turn a blind eye?
Lighting the fuse of cultural apartheid
Britain is a land of many festivals. Easter, Eid, Diwali and Hanukkah are celebrated by Christians, Muslims, Hindus and Jews and we all rub along pretty well.
But what if someone suggested celebrating a Jewish festival with a display of Christian icons, or marking a Muslim celebration by parading Jewish Stars of David? It would be mischievous. It would cause needless offence.
But something on those lines is happening in Tower Hamlets where the £75,000 council Bonfire Night will be based on a Bengali legend with a tiger instead of Guy Fawkes.
This is not only meddling with a traditional English festival. It is a form of cultural apartheid, enthusiastically endorsed by the local council with taxpayers footing the bill.
Someone deserves a rocket.
