We should sit by and do nothing to try and stabilise the country, that won't lead to anything problematic... like a refugee crisis. And even if it did I am sure everybody will be real level-headed and calm about it...
Perhaps if we support a new Syria we won't end up with another Afghanistan or Iran. Might not work of course, but 'we' have to try.
Not giving any compensation to the WASPIs. Sorry to anyone on here in that group but...good BBC News - Fury as women hit by pension age rise denied payouts Waspi: Fury as women hit by state pension age rise are denied payouts
More rank hypocrisy and outright lying by Starmer and co. Speaking in a radio interview in July 2022, he said there was a "real injustice" on how the women had been treated, after they were not properly advised by the DWP of the increase of the state pension age, from 60 to 65. Expressing his sympathy for their cause, the then-opposition leader said: "All your working life you’ve got in mind the date on which you can retire and get your pension, and just as you get towards it, the goalposts are moved and you don’t get it, and it’s a real injustice. "We need to do something about it. That wasn’t the basis on which you paid in or the basis on which you were working." He went on to accuse the then-Conservative Government of putting "its fingers in its ears". But Labour work and pensions secretary, Liz Kendall, said today (December 17) there would be "no scheme" for compensation, as it "isn't fair or value for taxpayers' money". This was despite a Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman report that came out in March, recommending payouts of between £1,000 and £2,950. Keir Starmer's own words make plain how Labour betrayed WASPI cause
Never said he'd compensate anyone. Maybe if the money was there he would. But after the tories...well.... Personally think they shouldnt pay anything, most that received the letters didnt even remember getting them.
Typical points scoring bullsh*t. In opposition, "they deserve it", when in fact knew compensation wasn't feasible and low and behold, now its not. To call it "STARMERS GREATEST BETRAYAL" is a tad dramatic . I'm not a woman born in the 50s but we're all getting screwed over the pension age, why exactly do they need a payout?
Then what did he mean when he said "We need to do something about it. That wasn’t the basis on which you paid in or the basis on which you were working." He's another liar, no different to Bliar or Johnson. Neither am I, but unlike you that doesn't mean I couldn't give a toss about those who are. I don't know how old you are but these women were told for decades they'd get their pensions at age 60, then with about 8 years to go the age was increased to 65. I wonder how much the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman report published in March and subsequently ignored cost the taxpayer.
Indeed it does. I'm no fan of Rebecca Wrong-Daily but she claims here that the Ombudsman Report that was ignored by the new government took six years to investigate, what an absolute waste of time and money. More staggering hypocrisy: Before this year's general election, several senior Labour figures had backed the campaign and Sir Keir himself signed a pledge for "fair and fast compensation" in 2022. In 2019, Angela Rayner, now the deputy prime minister, told the BBC: "They [the government] stole their pensions…we've said we'd right that injustice and within the five years of the Labour government we'll compensate them for the money that they've lost." In the first Prime Minister's Questions since the government announced they would not be providing compensation, veteran Labour MP Diane Abbott said the Waspi women had "fought one of the most sustained and passionate campaigns for justice that I can remember, year in, year out". "Does the prime minister really understand how let down Waspi women feel today?" she asked. Taxpayers can’t fund payouts for women hit by pension age rise, Starmer says
Exactly, which is why the utterly inept Badenoch shouldn't be given houseroom with her current moral outrage act when she actually had oversight of this issue during her time in government. People can whinge at Starmer all they like but he didn't create this problem. Pin the blame on the bastards that deserve it.
Definitely, just like last week when Jenryck was having a go at 'Labour's' scheme to release prisoners from jail, which was of course actually introduced by his own Tory administration. I haven't said it's his fault or Labour's fault, but nevertheless Starmer and his cronies have been posing for pictures and going on the record about the WASPI issue for 5 years, only to dismiss the recommendations of the independent report and thus show themselves to be bullshitters and liars.
More of a shame though that 'we' aren't giving compensation to those who need it. Or are you back on your 'all pensioners' are well off and don't need any more money mantra?
I never said all the WASPI women were well off. I just don't agree that we should be given a handout to people who do not need one, which it is clear is the case withe WASPI women if the recommendations were adopted. End of the day much like with the winter fuel allowance, we are in a position where a tailored approach isn't deemed acceptable, or feasible. But we also do not have the public finances to hand billions to a group of people who aren't in need when public services are crumbling and children are in poverty. I agree with an approach where preferential treatment isn't given to the 65+. All we are doing is leaving our younger generations with ever worsening living standards and prospects.
If the WASPI women deserve compensation, then so do I. When I started work for the first decade or so the retirement age was 65 and that's when I thought I'd retire. Now my retirement age is 68. Three whole years of my life lost. I want money! At the end of the day, there have been a lot of formerly generous benefits that have become unaffordable over time and have then needed cutting in recent decades. Some people are lucky and fall the right side of the cut off line, some fall the wrong side. It's just life. Like with my generation, I started work in the early 2000s and therefore just missed out on the final days of the generous final salary pension schemes and so I've got one of those shit defined contribution schemes that are due to pay us absolute peanuts in retirement. Had I been able to work 5 years earlier, I'd have probably been able to get one. Am I entitled to compensation because I've narrowly missed out on a good pension?
Has there been an independent government investigation taking several years into your pension entitlements that then decided you were due compensation? So you're comparing private company pensions to the state pension then? Why?
Probably because our generation haven't bitched and moaned about it despite the fact that we've had a far worse deal overall through the years than the WASPI generation with things like significantly higher housing and living costs. Maybe there should be an investigation to work out what compensation we should be due? I think I just find it hard to have sympathy with s generation that have generally had a much easier time of it and lived through far more prosperous times than my generation and the generations that are coming after me who are getting an even worse deal than I'm getting. Yes you can name examples of bad things that have happened in the past like the decimation of British manufacturing and industry, everything Thatcher did to the working classes in the 80s, strikes in the 70s etc. But generally it was far easier in the past to get started in life because the cost of buying or renting a house was so many multiples cheaper than it has been this century. Which made it easier to get started in life, and also made it easier to pick yourself up and recover from setbacks if things went wrong and you lost your job etc. Yes I'm sure being forced to work 5 years longer at relatively short notice is highly annoying. But overall they've still had a pretty good deal through the years and at least they're getting to retire. I'm not sure what, it anything, will be waiting for us in around 25-30 years. I'll be very surprised if I retire at 68.
So we got there in the end. Because you perceive your own lot in life to be less than those who were born before you then they too should be stripped of what benefits they might have received. In other words you're in favour of a drive to the bottom, you're in favour of everyone being treated like shit rather aspiring to improve things, and you look at those who had better work and private pensions than you as people who should be brought down to what you see as the unfair levels you might be facing.
