- Wed Dec 18, 2024 10:36 am
#80976
The decision not to pay compensation to women affected by changes to the qualifying age for the state pension (WASPI = "Women Against State Pension Inequality") is another one that leaves me feeling somewhat conflicted.
Corbyn as leader, of course, made an unambiguous pledge, originally not in the published 2019 election manifesto, to pay the women who were affected a total of about £58 billion. And Labour was of course comprehensively caned in that December's general election. Labour candidates in that election, many of whom are now in government, supported the pledge. However, such a pledge was clearly not in the manifesto on which Labour was elected to government in 2024.
There is a view that the women in the WASPI campaign have no case. They really should have been paying attention when the changes were flagged up. Some 90% of women are estimated to have been fully aware of the coming changes to the qualifying age, and were prepared for it.
I don't share that view. The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman found that there was maladministration, for which some compensation ought to be paid. The figure they put on the compensation was rather less than Corbyn's pledged payout, at a mere £10 billion. So I naturally have sympathy with that view.
On the other hand, the Labour government of 5 months is continuing to have to cope with the appalling fiscal inheritance of 14 years of the Tories, £22 billion black hole, crumbling NHS and all. There simply isn't currently a spare £10 billion to pay out. I want the government to get on with the (massive) job of re-building our country.
Politically, this is awful. We've handed our enemies in the right-wing media and the opposition a fucking great big box of political ammunition, that they will gleefully deploy against us. Clearly, the problem has been aligning ourselves with a cause in opposition that we arguably should have known it wasn't going to be possible practically to address when we reached government.
Politically, have we got this right ? Is the damage it is causing worth it? We're almost 5 years away from needing to seek re-election, but really, you're always governing with at least one eye on securing re-election when it comes. It's a catastrophe of sorts, but is it survivable ?
Corbyn as leader, of course, made an unambiguous pledge, originally not in the published 2019 election manifesto, to pay the women who were affected a total of about £58 billion. And Labour was of course comprehensively caned in that December's general election. Labour candidates in that election, many of whom are now in government, supported the pledge. However, such a pledge was clearly not in the manifesto on which Labour was elected to government in 2024.
There is a view that the women in the WASPI campaign have no case. They really should have been paying attention when the changes were flagged up. Some 90% of women are estimated to have been fully aware of the coming changes to the qualifying age, and were prepared for it.
I don't share that view. The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman found that there was maladministration, for which some compensation ought to be paid. The figure they put on the compensation was rather less than Corbyn's pledged payout, at a mere £10 billion. So I naturally have sympathy with that view.
On the other hand, the Labour government of 5 months is continuing to have to cope with the appalling fiscal inheritance of 14 years of the Tories, £22 billion black hole, crumbling NHS and all. There simply isn't currently a spare £10 billion to pay out. I want the government to get on with the (massive) job of re-building our country.
Politically, this is awful. We've handed our enemies in the right-wing media and the opposition a fucking great big box of political ammunition, that they will gleefully deploy against us. Clearly, the problem has been aligning ourselves with a cause in opposition that we arguably should have known it wasn't going to be possible practically to address when we reached government.
Politically, have we got this right ? Is the damage it is causing worth it? We're almost 5 years away from needing to seek re-election, but really, you're always governing with at least one eye on securing re-election when it comes. It's a catastrophe of sorts, but is it survivable ?
"The opportunity to serve our country: that is all we ask.” John Smith, May 11, 1994.
- By Youngian