Silent Majority Speaks

Britain has traditionally been one of the biggest net contributors to the EU because we do not get as much money back from Brussels in farm and regional subsidies as our rivals.

According to Treasury figures, between 1995-2002, Britain's average contribution taking the rebate into account, was £2.6billion, or £43.55 per head of population.

The French - the biggest recipient of farm subsidies - contributed £1billion a year or £16.08 per head of their population.

The road to ruin Comment, Daily Mail, November 14, 2005

The burden is so vast that it almost defies comprehension. According to the Institute of Economic Affairs, public sector pension liabilities are now a staggering £817billion, twice the Treasury's original estimate.

Now we see the true import of the Government cave-in to the unions, which allows public sector staff to go on retiring at 60, while workers in private firms face the prospect of working till they drop.

New Labour has already presided over 600,000 increase in Britain's bloated bureaucracy, with 5.8million - a fifth of all workers - now employed by the state. Meanwhile, public sector pay increases race ahead of rises in private industry.

Now the pensions liability - equivalent to £30,000 per household - threatens much higher taxes. The productive part of our economy is being drained. Could there be a surer road to ruin.

Work till you drop (unless, of course, you're paid by the state) Comment - Daily Mail, November 18, 2005

Time was when the apostles of social reform - not least in the Labour Party - dreamed of how economic growth, technological advance and the increase in our national wealth would one day transform the retirement expectations of millions. No longer would the relentless grind in factory or office be necessary into the twilight years. No longer need anyone dread privation after a working lifetime.

Instead, there would be a golden era of dignity and security in old age, with retirement underpinned by decent, solidly-funded pensions. How tantalisingly close that utopia once seemed.

In 1997, Britain enjoyed one of the world's most soundly-based pensions industries, 60% of the workforce protected by company final salary schemes. We could afford to pity EU neighbours, with their vast, unfunded pensions liabilities.

Not any more. Today our system is in such a crisis that the Government's Pensions Commission is to recommend extending the retirement age to 67 - this when British workers already put in the longest hours in Europe. Such is the black hole in our pensions finances that taxes will have to go up too. Meanwhile, companies are closing their final salary schemes to new entrants. Workers in future will have to make do with less generous alternatives.

But one privileged group doesn't share the pain. No, while workers in private firms suffer a real blow to their living standards, Britain's bloated bureaucrat army will continue retiring at 60 on inflation-proofed pensions - paid for by the very people who are being told they must soldier on until 67. An outrageous division into sheep and goats, haves and have-nots, us and them. Indeed. New Labour is not only creating two nations, but making their long-term reform of pensions almost impossible.

And it is doing so, moreover, for reasons of the most craven cowardice. Consider the background. One of the key ideas voiced by the Government's own Pensions Commission, set up to find ways out of this crisis, is that retirement ages in the public and private sectors must be harmonised to address the glaring shortfall in funding.

But now, ministers have made a mockery of the Commissions work - before it has published it report - by backing down at the first whiff of union grapeshot. The case for raising public sector retirement to 65, once described as 'irrefutable', has been tamely abandoned in the face of threats. This cave-in is all the more serious given the huge expansion in bureaucracy under New Labour, with 5.8million employees now in the public sector, a fifth of our total workforce.

According to the Institute of Economic Affairs, the total pensions liability of that army of government staff adds up to a barely imaginable £817billion. That exposes future generations to unsustainable costs that can only be met - if at all - by the wealth-creating part of our economy. Yes, politicians may argue they are not entirely responsible for this crisis. We are living longer. Our birth-rate is declining, a demographic trend having a profound impact on pensions liabilities, and beyond the control of Whitehall.

But one fact is inescapable; government policies have made a bad situation much worse. One of New Labour's first acts was the imposition of stealth taxes which have drained a staggering £100billion out of the pensions industry. Next it introduced bafflingly complex systems of pension tax credits which nobody understands, together with stakeholder pensions that are universally regarded as an expensive failure.

To compound its many errors, it has presided over a collapse in the savings ratio - the percentage of our income we set aside - from 9.9% to a miserable 5.6%. The shameful surrender to the unions on public service pensions was the last straw.

With its incompetence, cowardice, stealth and outrageous unfairness, this Government has forfeited any right to be trusted on an issue that cries out for a national consensus. It may come as a surprise to Labour politicians, but most Britons don't want to work beyond 65. After years of grind, they look forward to taking it easier in their autumn years, when grandchildren, bobbies and travel beckon.

Yet now they are told to work till they drop, be taxed to the limit and pay and pay again for the privileged public sector. In a nation richer than ever before, New Labour's treatment of private sector pensioners is the greatest betrayal of all.