j4bberw0ck
19-Oct-07, 13:38
I see that MSP's are to be consulted on whether their pension scheme should be made even more generous. Presently, they enjoy a "50th's" scheme, which means that for every year of service they get 1/50th of the final salary as a pension. They're to be asked if they wouldn't like to improve that to a "40th's" scheme. Under the 50th's scheme, for every £1 an MSP contributes (at a contribution rate of 6% of salary), the taxpayer puts in £3; and of course since they're all top-rate taxpayers, all of the 6% they contribute is boosted by 40% by - you guessed it - the taxpayer.
And did you know that under the rules, Jack McConnell, having been First Minister for a while, gets £39,000 pension for life - now! - on top of the £53,000 MSP basic salary. And he'd get the full £39,000 even if he'd been First Minister for just a few minutes.
These are the people who get the interest on their mortgages in Edinburgh paid by the taxpayer, making huge fortunes by being able to speculate in property at our expense. They're also the people who voted themselves exclusion from Council Tax on their homes in Edinburgh.
Most public sector employees - whose pensions are impossibly generous in comparison with most areas of the private sector now (courtesy of politicians starting with Margaret Thatcher and ending with Gordon Brown) - slum it by on an 80th's scheme (80th's plus cash, technically) so after 40 years service you'll get one-half of your final salary. MSPs would get that after 20 years under their new scheme.
Most of us in the private sector will be be lucky to get anything like either.
I don't see it as much of a defence that the proposed changes will bring MSPs in line with their Welsh counterparts, who have a choice between a 50th's and 40th's scheme.
Oh, and did I mention that the Westminster lot are about to vote themselves an extra 12 days holiday? Taking them to just 90 days a year, poor lambs. Plus weekends and public holidays. Awww, bless. How hard they work to look after us all. How would we manage without them?
And did you know that under the rules, Jack McConnell, having been First Minister for a while, gets £39,000 pension for life - now! - on top of the £53,000 MSP basic salary. And he'd get the full £39,000 even if he'd been First Minister for just a few minutes.
These are the people who get the interest on their mortgages in Edinburgh paid by the taxpayer, making huge fortunes by being able to speculate in property at our expense. They're also the people who voted themselves exclusion from Council Tax on their homes in Edinburgh.
Most public sector employees - whose pensions are impossibly generous in comparison with most areas of the private sector now (courtesy of politicians starting with Margaret Thatcher and ending with Gordon Brown) - slum it by on an 80th's scheme (80th's plus cash, technically) so after 40 years service you'll get one-half of your final salary. MSPs would get that after 20 years under their new scheme.
Most of us in the private sector will be be lucky to get anything like either.
I don't see it as much of a defence that the proposed changes will bring MSPs in line with their Welsh counterparts, who have a choice between a 50th's and 40th's scheme.
Oh, and did I mention that the Westminster lot are about to vote themselves an extra 12 days holiday? Taking them to just 90 days a year, poor lambs. Plus weekends and public holidays. Awww, bless. How hard they work to look after us all. How would we manage without them?