Thursday, June 30, 2011

Pension Strike and Rally: London 30 June

This lunchtime I met up with branch officer Joel Bodmer (picture bottom left) to go and support the Pension rally for striking London teachers and civil servants.

The rally took place at Westminster Central Hall. Unfortunately we were turned away since it was full. So we went to a overflow rally around the corner. The march was still ongoing
all the time we were there. This was a magnificent and well organised event.

At the rally I did note that one speaker mentioned that in the teachers pension fund there was already an agreement to cap employer contributions.  If teacher pension costs do go up then the state will not pay anymore.  So there is no need at all for this theft of pension contributions.  This is purely about those who work with the public being made to pay for the Bankers crisis rather than the financiers who caused it in the first place. 

12 comments:

Dan Filson said...

Tax relief on pension contributions of £37bn is heavily skewed towards the better off. Treasury figures show that 60 per cent of tax relief goes to higher rate taxpayers, with 25 per cent going to the top 1 per cent of earners. Thanks to the Guardian and Labour List for this info. So over £9,000,000,000 tax relief is going to the top 1% earners. Good targetting of focussed benefits, I think not!!!

John Gray said...

Agreed Dan. When are the Tax Evaders Alliance going to "expose" this scandel and waste of our money?

I'm not going to hold my breath.

Anonymous said...

What are you on about? Tax relief on high earners is actually tax relief on higher tax "payers". Higher rate tax payers already paid far more tax than 99% of society. Furthhermore its not your money - they earned it, whether you like it or not - and they pay higher rate tax - ie more than you. So they get some tax relief, and none of the other benefits. No child benefit, no tax credits, no subsidised rent. Bob Crowe is earning 130K plus and living in a subsidised council house - who is the real parasite?

John Gray said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
John Gray said...

Hi anon

nonsense. they don't pay more tax than 99% of tapayers. how silly to think that. The rich (not just those on higher rate) are being subidised by the poor and are not paying their fair share. They will suffer from this. Everyone, the rich as well as the poor benefit from more equal societies.

Council housing was suppose to be for everyone - this has changed but do you only want the very poor to live in social housing?

Anonymous said...

So you are saying that someone who earns £130k should be allowed a council house?

This taken from the Newham Council website:

At present, there are thousands of households who are on the housing waiting list. We are working very hard to ensure there is more housing available, but at the moment there are simply not enough council and housing association properties to go around.

So do please confirm that you think its ok for someone earning £130k to live in a council house, or do people in your area earn more than that?

John Gray said...

Hi anon
First things first. Bob Crow lives in a property owned by a housing association not the Council. Bob has lived in social housing all his life and turned down the chance to buy his home at a discount. He also earns about £94k a year not £130k. That is less than many Newham Head teachers and GP’s earn.

Mixed income housing is key to a successful housing policy. I would want our head teachers and doctors (and trade union leaders) to actually live in the community they serve. What you don’t want is social housing ghettos of the very poor where everyone is unemployed.

Yes, there is an absolute problem of scarcity - about to be made very much worse by this Tory led government to deal with. In my personal opinion one possible solution would be to look into charging more rent to those who do earn above the average. This money could then be recycled into building more homes.

Anonymous said...

In 2009 the lower 50% of the people in the UK in terms of income paid precisely 11% of income tax - fact.

Anonymous said...

11% of what you dickhead? What about NI? how much does the rich earn?

Anonymous said...

Particularly like Anon's quote from the Newham Council website John, but , er, Anon,-- Bob Crow does not live in Newham.

Interesting how some people quote the Council website when it suits them.

Anonymous said...

Oh - I thought we were talking about "higher rate tax relief" - I guess that now also applies to National Insurance? Actually no it doesn't.
The FACT is the top 1% of the earners pay 25% of all income collected in the UK - and this is a fact. Google it - and then see who is the d***head. Thanks, and have a nice day.

John Gray said...

Hi anons

That is only because the rich are getting even richer. But do the 1%pay their fair share of tax when even the rich complain they pay less in tax than their office cleaners?