Fair play to the transport workers of Paris for going on strike today, paralysing the metro system. The French government intends to reduce the value of their pensions and make them work longer for less. It’s a shame we didn’t do something similar over here.
It was George Osborne who set in train a series of changes to the retirement age, which will mean that people will not retire until 68 as early as 2037. Many women saw their retirement age rise from 60 to 67 at a stroke. There was barely a murmur in the House of Commons and not even a squeak in the newspapers. It was presented as though the increases were something we all agreed with and believed were necessary. I didn’t.
I certainly agreed with equalising the pension age for men and women, but not by increasing a woman’s retirement age. Instead, I supported the idea of men being able to take their pensions when they were 60.
“But we’re all living longer,” goes the argument, usually made by very rich people who can retire any time they like. Yet we’re not all living longer and anyway, even if we all were, it would be nice to do something worthwhile with all that time as opposed to working.
Here, we meekly accepted our lot when filthy rich politicians told the riff-raff to work until they drop. In France, at least they stand up to their leaders when they are being dumped on.
Boris Johnson’s close ally Iain Duncan Smith supports the idea of increasing the pension age to 75. If Johnson wins a majority at the coming general election, don’t be too surprised if it happens.
