Most liked posts in thread: Pensions

It's not a fairy story - it's true.
Most of the people that go around moaning about 'lefties' have no idea that most of the social gains that make our current society so civilised and bearable compared to pre-WW2 times, were fought for and brought about by left of centre activists and governments. And all of those things were doggedly opposed by the Tory Party.

 

Should have know you were a rep - nobody else speaks so glowingly about them except people who have poured their time into the unions.

People suffered from poor job security and poor pay and conditions even in the Unions heyday. It's not new and it's not linked directly to the left right divide otherwise the winter of discontent wouldn't have happened under a Labour government.

And there is a balance but harping back to things like Sick pay, unfair dismissal legislation, decent annual leave, maternity and paternity leave free healthcare are now irrelevant. They're done, there's no discussion about them, we might as well bring up the printing press!

And it's okay saying that some of the Tory party believe in it, I'm sure they do but so do some of the Blairites in the Labour party and some of the rest would have us back to the minors strikes!

 

Err, no they shouldn't. Lord save us from self righteous self employed people who have a permanent chip on their shoulder about those who choose the relative security of being employed.

 

Pensioner mostly put their pension money straight back into the economy
pensioners are a great investment

 

Pensions are probably complicated enough with the triple lock (in normal times) without just randomly adding other factors into it.

 

When Johnson said levelling up at the party conference it must have been near impossible for the delegates in the auditorium to hold back their snorts of laughter. Damn autocorrect on Johnsons autocue, what it meant to say was 'feck the poor'.

 

Don't listen to him RT,.... work, save and invest is the way to go....!!

 

All these were probably partly true in history.

Unfortunately the story now probably ends with....Joe has unfortunately been fired from work because he called the girl with punk hair "she" rather than "they"

 

But it didn't , and what you got was a socialist type hand out paid for by the taxpayers (workers) so what's the problem..?

 

Excellent summation but you'll never get that past our comrades...

 

But we're not , we have gone far enough, workers today have it all and more besides and good on 'em but it has to be paid for by efficient productivity and paid for with funds that investors have risked everything on including their property and savings etc.. I know i'm wasting my breath but there you go...

 

That's certainly true. The 1940s left was far more Stalinist/ Leninist/ Communist/ in thrall to Russia than it is today. Aside from the tiny loopy left in the SWP, most people on the left of centre nowadays believe in a mixed economy, with the state playing a bigger role in the delivery of public services (health, social care, utilities, public transport etc) and the private sector doing everything else.
It hard to compare left and right in the 19th century because Marxism and Fabianism hadn't happened and the Whig and Tory parties didn't split on left-right lines so aren't comparable to modern day British politics. Certainly in the 20th century, all the positive social changes came from the left and most were bitterly opposed by the right.
And there are plenty in the current government who would be only too keen to water down employment rights, H&S and environmental standards etc given half a chance, in the name of a 'flexible economy' and 'cutting red tape. We've already seen them renege on the promises they made about maintaining EU-level food standards in future trade deals and they'd drop many more protections if they thought they could get away with it.

 

But this is the point isn't all of it is true but it's so long ago it's as irrelevant to the current time and Disraeli is to the modern conservatives. Blair hated the unions almost as much as Thatcher.

You seem to be stuck in the glory days of the unions but it isn't 1975 any more (let alone the more problematic union times of 78/79 when Labour were actually in charge). Our system has evolved to give us all of these things as a centrist ideal across all parties, rather than just the them being the ideals of the left,