It is a sign of the times when a right wing think tank (the self styled Institute of Economic Affairs) believes it is credible to launch a full scale attack on the rights of Britain’s 11 million pensioners.
http://www.iea.org.uk/publications/research/sharing-the-burden-how-the-older-generation-should-suffer-its-share-of-the-cut
In language few will find inoffensive, the Institute talks about pensioners ‘sharing the burden’ of austerity cuts. The same pensioners who actually shouldered the burden of building the decent public services and welfare state being dismantled by the Con Dem’s. Only a securely tenured academic who is sheltered in an ivory tower could come to a conclusion that the UK’s pensioners are in a ‘privileged position’.
The right wing ideologues of IEA met their match today in a feature on Radio 2 Jeremy Vine programme. Past General Secretary of UNISON Rodney Bickerstaffe gave a master class in defence of universal benefits for the elderly and for inter-generational solidarity. Listen at 1:08 to 1:20 at http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00ymxrj/Jeremy_Vine_Vanessa_Feltz_Sits_In/
