At no time did I suggest budgetary constraints could be ignored.
What I said was that the private sector have lorded it up in the good times and whinged in the bad.
The public sector workers have occupied the middle ground throughout. Looking on in envy when my brother in law got a bonus big enough to pay for a new vw golf and bragging about how easily he afforded some avc's, then watching a few years later when he whinged about not getting a bonus feeling hard done by. He was far from the only one in my experience. Tough shit. I chose the average non bonus middle ground for security. I entered a contract with my employers which was moral lawful but apparently not legally binding.
Public sector pensions have needed reform for many years. Many of us have advocated the government getting on with it on many occasions in the past. However as it was contentious it found its way into the "this ll make me unpopular" or "too hard" cupboard, safely out of the way.
A few years ago it would have been uncomfortable but not impossible to find the cash from other funds (eg the Indian one or the money wasted on missiles for Iraq) to rectify the problem. But they didn't have the spine.
So it dragged on and now under the guise of international economic problems its being revisited. Unfortunately all spare cash has been sent to India or bombed the crap out of Iraq.
So thought Hutton, who can fund it? well the answer when you dig in the document is actually very simple. We will take more off those we can find and we will not pay out to those who we should. That ll make cash and save cash for US the govt. Bollox to wrecked lives and plans.
Nothing at all to do with the real world, all to do with murky politics, robbing peter to pay paul , breach of contract, lack of morals and a stunning misunderstanding that the words of Petronius Arbiter were ironic not a credible bussiness plan.
As far as no regard for public cash from Cservants, perhaps, from my neck of the words, not the case. I have a good cv s a fed rep and unfortunately at the moment a budget holder for being fiscally cautious with public and organisation cash :thumbs im not the only one.
Not just my industry thats getting hit badly either. An example of teachers pensions seem even worse than ours.
If our dear govt want no police to cover the streets and deal with illiterate children bunking off school theyre heading the right way because no one will go into those trades for a generation or more.
