Kieran Lawrence looks at autonomous weapons and the effect they could have on modern warfare
Continuing a series on world leaders, Miles Deverson takes a look at Angela Merkel
Ben Bland examines the fallout from the Iowa caucuses and looks forward to the New Hampshire primaries.
In the first of a series on world leaders, Miles Deverson takes a look at Nicholas Sarkozy
Yes by Izaak Wilson
It seems absurd to be debating whether these strikes are 'right' or 'wrong', my opinion is that the immense unfairness of the way that these cuts are being directed speaks for itself. Do not listen to people who endlessly repeat that cuts have to be made, that is not the issue. The issue is the vicious, undemocratic and downright tricky way that these attacks have been carried out. Let's mop up some of that sickly spiel with facts.
First, the proposed pension adjustments (the ones that the government declared to be their best offer a month ago) converge to create a massive pay cut. Pension contribution is to rise by 50% from 6 to 9% of salary in return for a smaller final amount, the change in age of retirement to 67 has been pushed forward 20 years, and current pay freezes will be extended for an extra two years. On top of that 710,000 public sector workers are to lose their jobs.
Meanwhile we see no mansion tax, banking tax remains at 0.08%, trident is being left well alone, and thousands of tax collectors are losing their jobs while tax avoidance by the rich just keeps racking up (estimates call it at between 95 and 120 billion). A different approach to just one of these issues would lighten the load on the poor, but for the coalition the first reaction to economic stress is never to hit out at their own. Instead, we see battles waged against the millions of public sector workers whose pension, averaging £6,000 pa, has been branded by the right wing press as 'gold plated'. The salaries of FTSE 100 directors are gold plated, the obscene bankers bonuses are gold plated, but the pay of nurses, fire-fighters and librarians are not gold plated; bronze at best.
Of course private sector pensions remain atrocious, so while that continues they can always try a divide and conquer strategy - play up tension within the working class to keep them distracted from the unprecedented redirection of wealth straight upwards. No. We have to be absolutely and resolutely clear that this is not a race to the bottom.
The rich, whilst scoffing down great chunks of cake, demand that the majority (public and private sector) share fewer and fewer crumbs between themselves after a hard life of work. Only by fighting back, including with the foundational right to withdraw labour, will this situation change. For these reasons the strikes are right.
No by Thomas Smith
The strikes have been compared by some union leaders to those in 1926, when the country nearly ground to a halt. In truth, the public sector going on strike today could never have the disruptive power that the halting of the railways, docks and mines did back then. One aspect of these strikes however did turn out to be rather like 1926. The public reaction. Then as now, there was no total strike, some people did still turn up for work and everybody else wanted to thwart the strikes, not support them.
The eagerness of volunteers to staff our borders, help in our schools and try and keep things going as much as possible showed the truth about these strikes. People don’t support them. How could they? In the private sector the final salary pension scheme has gone the way of the job for life, and people have had to adapt to the new circumstances. Our public sector is a dinosaur, years behind the private sector, and if it is to be afforded it will have to be reformed.
We are in a terrible financial situation thanks to the last government spending more than it had in the boom years. The struggling economy of our closest neighbours in the Eurozone, on whom so much of our trade relies and the continuing problems elsewhere in the world mean we are not suddenly going to go back to the boom years, much as we’d like it to. We must cut our coat according to the cloth, and stop spending more than we have.
It is worth remembering what these reforms actually are. The government is not scrapping public sector pensions, just asking people to pay a bit more and accept a bit less each week as they’re going to live a lot longer. Our public sector pension system was designed for an age when few people would reach eighty, and most were unable to work past sixty. We don’t live in such an age now, and we must make sure that people can be supported in their old age.
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