Tories centres not
at all the question of substantive policy disagreements - but rather the tact tnat Hague and his team are por- pensions. trayed as insubstantial and opportunist.
Óf course that attack is platform accurate - both in terms of the weakness of the Conservatives today, but also because on policy after policy it is increasingly difficult to see any difference between the two parties. But that is not how the rhetoric reads.
For many people, as workers and as users, a key issue on which there is anger and for frustration with new Labour's policies is on the question of privatisation -whether hidden under the ings is a demand for a decent standard of living for this section of the working class..
But what came increasingly into focus was the means by which this standard of living should be achieved The too high. demand for restoration of the link is in practice a campaign universalism, against means-testing and for progressive taxation.
In opposing this position the leadership and their lack- goes by! PERHAPS the most sickening argument used by Tony Blair and Gordon Brown to oppose the link between the state pension and average wages is that although the government could afford to implement it this year, the cost in future years would be This not only concedes that - as pensioners have argued - the money is there, but tax! makes it plain that the government expects the gap between pensions and wages, which is costing today's pensioners over £25 per week, to grow even larger as time It is also clear from this argument that Labour's hard line against pensioners today is aimed purely and simply to safeguard the future profitability of capitalism.
The crazy argument that a big pension increase would mean handing cash to wealthy pensioners can be easily answered: the wealthy can pay it back in In fact so low are the incomes of most who depend on the state pension that two thirds of pensioners are too poor to pay any income tax at all (below £112 per week) - and the average weekly income of ail pensioners is just £138.
A key reason why British pensions are so low compared with those across the European Union is that British companies Day far less than their European counterparts in National Insurance. French trade unions have been waging a long and militant fight to prevent employers reducing pension contributions from the current level of 40 percent of gross wages.
The equivalent contribution by British employers is closer to 10 percent!.
Outlook