Labour Push State Pension Age to 68

[John]

Another Gordon Brown move.

A gift for those starting work now - or those fortunate to find a job.

Would you have liked to wait until you were 68 for your state pension?

Would you have considered you had contributed enough already by 65?

A government working against common sense and decency.

[rosynan]

I am 68 and would quite like to work part time but as my skills are manual and my arthrites and energy levels would make it difficult to earn enough to live comfortably it's a no goer.  If a small but useful amount of money could be earned without affecting pension credit then I would do so.

[Ivanhoe]

A government continuing the Thatcher dream.

[Edna]

having retired 2 years ago I recently took a part time position with my old company. They were delighted I had returned and I must say i am glad to have something to do to pass away the hours.

My advice to other pensioners is seek proper advice about all benefits available to pensioners and get a family member or friend to help you with the paperwork. There is far too much moaning from some of our fellow pensioners.

[Ivanhoe]

No, there is not enough consolidation amongst the elderly people of this country to fight for a decent state pension re-linked to national average wages or inflation whichever the higher.

[Wrinkles]

Oh! for one moment there I thought Ivanhoe hadn't blamed Mrs T for this one, but then I saw his previous post. Phew! I though he was slipping for a moment,
However I am gratified to see that it wasn't labour that did it and Gordon wasn't the instigator 

[Ivanhoe]

Wrinkles, you keep refering to this government as Labour, why ?

[Wrinkles]

Why? I would have thought it was fairly obvious but if you need some clarification I will attempt to enlighten you. The labour party, consisting of Labour supporters, labour activists and labour politicians hung a new sign on their door saying New Labour.  In 1997 All those labourites fought and won a general election and in so doing were duly elected to government. This position they have retained until the present day. If you were to scan the various methods of recording past events, for example the press and media you will see that most if not all references to the Government during this period include the description "Labour" which to me would sort of indicate that it would be pretty safe bet if one concluded that the government was Labour.
I of course realize that in your infinite wisdom you would contend that they can't possibly be Labour because they have prefixed their name with "New". I would counter What's in a name? If you call pig, a rose it doesn't make it any less a pig. A rose by any other name would smell as sweet. A leopard can not change it's spots, etc. etc.
You would contend that virtually overnight the Labour party changed en masse into a completely different animal. My contention is, however, that you are a sad and deluded person, living in the past with your dreams of empire or some such.
Like it or loath it the fact is they ARE LABOUR ipso facto!

[Ivanhoe]

I will now answer my question to you, for you.

New Labour since they came to power in 1997 have fully embraced Thatcher's right wing doctrine, hence New Labour are not a "Labour" government.

They are a "New" Labour government with a right wing Tory agenda.

[Wrinkles]

For The love of god what is wrong with you? How dense can you be, Just because the Labour party/Government doesn't fit your particular, and some would say, peculiar, template of a labour party/Government doesn't mean it isn't the labour party/Government. You can not deny Labour because they had some new clothes but even so have again made an almighty mess of things. "It's OK really 'cos this lot aren't Labour", these are NEW Labour so they don't count.
Can you not appreciate that evolution is everywhere,  things move on, progress, change happens. Labour, new, old or indifferent are one and the same, they are and always will be labour. Just because you don't agree with them doesn't mean they are anything other than what they are, LABOUR, repeat after me LABOUR.
As I've said before get yourself out of the 30's, 40's, 50's and into the new millennium. Clement Attlee isn't around any more, Look outside we have electric lights and the horses are gone. Harold Wilson? long gone.
You are a dinosaur, holding on to perceived former glories, wake up, it's over, the dream of labour utopia was just that a dream. Labour is Labour and continues to blunder on as it's new clothes split at the seams.

I suspect that you will miss the point totally, by design or not, it is irrelevant suffice to say that if you do, then I feel deeply sorry for you and I will cease to argue with you as it is apparent that you are either beyond help or have no wish to get the help that you so evidently need 

[Papaumau]

Even although it is not "fashionable" here to support Ivanhoe I must stand with him on this one.

It is an undeniable fact that to make itself electable again "Labour" under the guise of "NEW-Labour" lurched far over to the right under Blair. They have since - under Brown - tried to be all things to all men and have failed miserably.

Now the New-Labour government don't have a clue what they are or who or what they stand for and they have truly lost their way.

I think that in the future - and especially if the REAL Tories get in - this idea to lift the pension-qualifying age to 68 or even 70 will become an even greater threat.

Believe me, that even if you all think that this New-Labour government are bad - as is the case for all governments that have been in for two or three terms - what will come in it's place will be even worse.

My old Irish grannie used to say......"Better the devil you know than the devil you don't !" and as usual, she was right.

[Ivanhoe]

Wrinkles, New Labour are Thatcherite.  End of.

[Papaumau]

As I always try to be reasonable here and elsewhere I would not agree that New-Labour is actually "Thatcherite" even if they have done some things that Thatcher would have baulked at trying to do in her halcion days.

I still believe that deep down the New-Labour government DO have the people at heart and I am sure that if they get a bloody nose at this up-and-coming GE they will investigate their values and are bound to come back to the fold of middle-of-the-road socialism. ( At least I hope so ).

In Britain it is the "middle-of-the-road" voters that swing left and right when they feel that the party that is making the promises might actually produce the goods and the political animals know this. That is why they target their policies at the centre ground instead of at the right and left edges. ( Cameron is doing this too at this very moment ).

Karl Marx - who I admire as an intellectual but do not actually support - is famous for his telling quotes and the one that I like the best is "Do not stand in the middle of the road as that is where the dangerous traffic moves !" ( or words to that effect ).

Strangely...also by Margaret Thatcher:

"Standing in the middle of the road is very dangerous; you get knocked down by the traffic from both sides !"

Here are a few more of Marx's muses:

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/k/karl_marx.html

[Ivanhoe]

Papaumau, Well we will have to beg to differe here, because New Labour since 1997 have embraced wholesale Thatcherism todate.

New Labour have not got the ordinary people at heart, but I would agree with you that New Labour have lost their way.

But also that Cameron's Tories have nowhere to go because New Labour have stolen their shoes.

[Papaumau]

As I already said...When Labour under Blair became New-Labour they lurched over to the right to try to attract the right-leaning voters, they certainly did put many of their old values onto the back-burner. This does not mean that they are gone or forgotten as a great many of the MPs in the commons that help to support the New-Labour government are still Labour party at heart.

Now that the right-wing policies are not working any more I am sure that a great many of these true "Labour" MPs are thinking about their roots once again.

Sadly it might be too late for them to get back into government for another term and we will just have to wait and watch the true Labour party coming back into it's own in opposition.