Dominic Lawson makes some good points in today's i newspaper about the current pensions debate.
For instance he points out that "barely a third of all private sector workers
have an employer-sponsored scheme at all." Yet, instead of castigating the
private sector employers for atrociously failing their employees, and by the way
possibly flouting the law, he eulogises this scandal and uses it as a stick to beat public
sector employers with.
He then goes on to recycle the tired old untruth about the relative scale of
public sector pensions, completely failing to distinguish between those funded
from general taxation and those funded by their fund participants and local
employers, i.e. with not a single penny of general taxation used in those funds.
It is to his discredit and that of the i, that this partial description, even in
a piece headed "My View", is allowed to see the light of day. Until critics like
Lawson present the whole picture their arguments will always fall short of
making a persuasive case for change. While he's it, i.e. telling only half a
story, why not report on the Footsie 100 Directors' average annual pensions at
£279,000. Now there is a scandal - these 'masters of the universe' have ruined
the value of many of our industries (apparently without paying pensions to their employees
according to Lawson) and banks yet walk away with fortunes.
How about reporting on that Dominic?
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