Mailwatch(ed) Forum

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 ?

The decision is correct. If you think the WFA was giving too much to people who didn't need it, WASPI is way worse.

It's bad - if/when they do get round to it, it'll be "about time/what took you so long/we see you found the money for X sharpish enough". The RW spin is obvious - "Labour shafted your mum". Won't be surprised if it comes up in PMQ.

More likely it comes up from Farage than Kemi. She's not going to be able to commit to £10bn, is she?

My mistake. Kemi has gone with "Labour admitting we were right all along".

She admitted that the Tories wouldn't have paid either.

Everyone thinks something has to be done about debt. Just as long as it doesn't affect them.

See also tax. Somebody else should pay for it all.

Every one of these Labour gaffes has been a continuation Tory policy.
It's a labour problem because:
* Labour didn't fix it before day 14.
* The Tory press says so.

I suspect such policies are a classic elephant trap.
Tories salt the pastures.
Labour either carry on with salted fields, or spend *illions on fixing the issue. - Either way it's Labour bad!

Not only is it Labour bad, but there's a classic ratchet effect.
Imagine a labour utopia where Starmer leads for 10 years, creates half a million social homes, but raises taxes to do so.
What do you think happens next.

Right wing party gets voted in an a "Taxed enough already" landslide.
Sell off all the social homes.
Pocket a large proportion of the income.
Trimarans all round...


How do we break that cycle?

Bones McCoy wrote: ↑Wed Dec 18, 2024 3:20 pm
How do we break that cycle?

Start with Leveson 2 (or 3) and a rocket up OFCOM's fundamental.

Might stop some of the more flagrant stuff. But very easy to base the shit on a kernel of truth.

My cup of sympathy over-floweth not for these WASPI women of a certain age. They are slap bang in the middle of the cohort which got Brexit over the line and which has hobbled the nation's finances by sums far greater than the compo they feel entitled to.

It's just a pity Labour didn't level with the Waspi campaigners before the GE instead of stringing them along. This sorry episode won't do much to counter the 'politicians are all liars' narrative that propels populists to power.

Were WASPI really strung along? Some MPs posed for photos with campaigners but I can't recall the last time the front bench said they'd pay up.

The issue had basically died with the 2019 election and defeat for WASPI in the High Court and Court of Appeal, with (one presumes) pretty strong advice from their lawyers not to go the Supreme Court. Then came the ombudsman report which brought it back to life. Did Labour take a position on that?

We had 14 years of corruption, fraud and downright theft with a few people becoming extremely rich at the expense of the rest of us. There was a bit of grumbling but Middle England generally went along with it. Two of the best-off demographics in the country are mildly inconvenienced and the world's coming to an end.

Tubby Isaacs wrote: ↑Wed Dec 18, 2024 5:11 pm Were WASPI really strung along? Some MPs posed for photos with campaigners but I can't recall the last time the front bench said they'd pay up.

The issue had basically died with the 2019 election and defeat for WASPI in the High Court and Court of Appeal, with (one presumes) pretty strong advice from their lawyers not to go the Supreme Court. Then came the ombudsman report which brought it back to life. Did Labour take a position on that?

No there was nothing in the manifesto. Danielle has the correct take in my view

It seems we would do well to remember that Labour is newly embarked on an (at least) ten year project to repair 14 years of Tory incompetence and wilful damage and re-build the country, and that stuff like WASPI is/are simply highly questionable distractions that this government/mission cannot afford to countenance,, particularly at this early stage in the project, however it might appear aspirationally to wear the mantle of the deliberately fucked-over post masters and mistresses and the victims of the infected blood donations. We’re only 5 months in.

I think it’s probably the right decision on that basis.

I think all the MPs and newspapers trying to make political capital out of this need to explain how they would fund this compensation. The likes of Chris Mason on the BBC have tried to make out that this is a betrayal on the part of Labour yet it wasn't in the parties manifesto. Mason also produced a picture of Starmer talking to WASPI campaigners but the fact that everybody in the picture was wearing a mask it would suggest it was taken 3 or 4 years ago before. Since the picture was taken all the Covid spending and spending on Ukraine have had a negative impact on public finances and then Hunt introduced unfunded cuts to national insurance to try and bribe the public.

Yeah, I thought it was fairly clear it had been dropped. The idea that they shifted a load of votes in their direction in 2024 by not mentioning it doesn't really sound very likely.

Just a reminder that in 2019, Corbyn and McDonnell were promising to commit £58 billion to providing compensation to “WASPI” women.

Those are ridiculous numbers.