Read this.
I'm not working longer. I'm not contributing more.
I'm going to fulfil the contract that I signed up to - and so are you!
You have no right to change it.
Hands off MY MONEY or I call the police.
Oh... Bugger.
Thursday 24 November 2011
Fraud
I'm generally a very calm person, but I found myself shouting at my computer screen today when I came across a Channel 4 News article claiming that the proposed Unison strike on 30th November would cost approximately £500 million and that we spoiled public sector workers should suck it up and go to work anyway because there simply isn't enough money in the public pot to pay our pensions as promised.
Now, that's bad enough. As it happens I'm on a rest day today so I watched You've Been Scammed on BBC1 this morning (so much classier than keeping up with my frequent customers on Jeremy Kyle) during which I learned of the existence of a government agency called the Insolvency Agency which, among other duties, wraps up companies which take money for services that they actually have no ability to offer.
So... We've been paying into our pensions all this time (and let's not hear any "gold-plated" bollocks, they're good pensions but no better than a decent private-sector employer) and now they say they can't afford to pay out? Sounds like a job for the Insolvency Agency to me.
But wait. Here comes a conflicting set of figures.
Like most of my colleagues, I'm a member of Unison. Like most of my colleagues, it's not because we're red-flag waving 1970s British Leyland workers but because Unison supports its members when, inevitably, a member of the public makes a complaint against us.
Unison says that the Local Government Pension Scheme is in rude health, that it currently takes in more money than it gives out, and if all contributions suddenly stopped it could support its retirees for another 20 years.
I don't know The Facts, but I've read widely around the current crisis and I've arrived at the conclusion that it was caused by a greedy group of banks aiming for profit with no regard for the good of their customers. This shouldn't be any surprise - George Soros did much the same thing single-handed in the '90s, but we're looking at all the banks coming up with the same idea at the same time rather than a single individual this time around.
My own experience has taught me to trust what Unison says over and above the sewage that issues from the current government.
I believe that my pension, which I have been paying into in good faith, is being plundered in order to rectify the mistakes made by reckless bankers in the pursuit of wealth.
I do not work in the pursuit of wealth. I work damn hard in a pretty unpleasant shift pattern and I earn almost exactly the average salary for a British male of my age. I do it because I believe I do good work, and because I believe my colleagues are above reproach.
If you think this doesn't matter to you because you don't work in the public sector, ask yourself this: Are you immune from burglary? Is your car theft-proof? Will you, your spouse, your children never suffer from mental health issues? Or addiction? Will you never know anyone lose their job and become dependent on benefits?
At the moment the press seem to conspiring with the government to display "the public sector" as your enemy, as a cost to society. We are not. We look after your kids when you can't, we reassure your grandparents when they're alone, we protect you drunks from yourselves, we also look into real crime on the rare occasions that we have time.
Let us have our salary and our pensions. We love our work, but we can't buy food with love.
Now, that's bad enough. As it happens I'm on a rest day today so I watched You've Been Scammed on BBC1 this morning (so much classier than keeping up with my frequent customers on Jeremy Kyle) during which I learned of the existence of a government agency called the Insolvency Agency which, among other duties, wraps up companies which take money for services that they actually have no ability to offer.
So... We've been paying into our pensions all this time (and let's not hear any "gold-plated" bollocks, they're good pensions but no better than a decent private-sector employer) and now they say they can't afford to pay out? Sounds like a job for the Insolvency Agency to me.
But wait. Here comes a conflicting set of figures.
Like most of my colleagues, I'm a member of Unison. Like most of my colleagues, it's not because we're red-flag waving 1970s British Leyland workers but because Unison supports its members when, inevitably, a member of the public makes a complaint against us.
Unison says that the Local Government Pension Scheme is in rude health, that it currently takes in more money than it gives out, and if all contributions suddenly stopped it could support its retirees for another 20 years.
I don't know The Facts, but I've read widely around the current crisis and I've arrived at the conclusion that it was caused by a greedy group of banks aiming for profit with no regard for the good of their customers. This shouldn't be any surprise - George Soros did much the same thing single-handed in the '90s, but we're looking at all the banks coming up with the same idea at the same time rather than a single individual this time around.
My own experience has taught me to trust what Unison says over and above the sewage that issues from the current government.
I believe that my pension, which I have been paying into in good faith, is being plundered in order to rectify the mistakes made by reckless bankers in the pursuit of wealth.
I do not work in the pursuit of wealth. I work damn hard in a pretty unpleasant shift pattern and I earn almost exactly the average salary for a British male of my age. I do it because I believe I do good work, and because I believe my colleagues are above reproach.
If you think this doesn't matter to you because you don't work in the public sector, ask yourself this: Are you immune from burglary? Is your car theft-proof? Will you, your spouse, your children never suffer from mental health issues? Or addiction? Will you never know anyone lose their job and become dependent on benefits?
At the moment the press seem to conspiring with the government to display "the public sector" as your enemy, as a cost to society. We are not. We look after your kids when you can't, we reassure your grandparents when they're alone, we protect you drunks from yourselves, we also look into real crime on the rare occasions that we have time.
Let us have our salary and our pensions. We love our work, but we can't buy food with love.
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