Wednesday, 20 April 2011

Exclusively updating on another CONDEM COLLUSION disaster! When Nick Gibb outraged the community in shock following Mr Esmoth Ali's 1989 murder



Teachers heckle minister over pension fears

Nick GibbNick Gibb faced jeers from teachers angry over pension changes

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Teachers have heckled the schools minister over proposed changes to public-sector pensions.

Nick Gibb faced jeers and shouts of "rubbish" as he addressed the annual conference of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers.

On Tuesday, the conference of the traditionally moderate union voted for a strike ballot over pension changes.

"There is clearly a huge passion about the pensions issue," said Mr Gibb afterwards.

The schools minister had told teachers that the government could not "ignore the realities of the cost pressures" of the pension scheme.

The union's general secretary, Mary Bousted, said: "If ATL is so angry, where is the government going to go on its pension reforms. We're middle England, if you alienate us where do you go?"

First strike

Mr Gibb's speech to the conference in Liverpool came a day after the union voted for a ballot for what could be the union's first ever national strike.

Teachers spoke out against pension changes, which they said would mean working for more years for lower benefits.

The campaign over pensions could see the ATL joining other teachers' unions in staging a joint walkout this summer term.

The ATL's executive committee says it will co-ordinate its strike ballot with other teachers' unions, if they also vote for a strike ballot over pensions at their Easter conferences.

Mary BoustedMary Bousted: "ATL members are very angry - and it takes a lot to get them this angry"

In her conference speech on Wednesday, Dr Bousted told delegates: "We prepare for a strike, for the first time in our history, more in sorrow than in anger. We do not want to strike. We want to avoid a strike. But when reason fails, what is left?"

She told delegates that it was unfair for public-sector workers to pay through their pensions for the damage caused by the global financial crisis.

And she attacked the "cynical mantra from cabinet millionaires that we are all in this together".

'Gold standard'

Mr Gibb had told teachers that there needed to be changes to a pension scheme which because of longer life expectancy was becoming increasingly expensive.

He said that in the decade between 2005 and 2015, the annual cost of paying teachers' pensions would have risen from £5bn to £10bn.

"This is why long-term reform of public service schemes is needed - and why teachers and other public-service scheme members are being asked to pay a higher pension contribution from April 2012," Mr Gibb told the conference.

But he promised that "public-service pensions should remain a gold standard".

The strike ballot motion adopted on Tuesday said the pension changes will include raising the retirement age to 68 and the replacement of the final-salary scheme with a career-average scheme, which would mean a lower pension for many teachers.

The union says that the proposed public-sector pension changes would see teachers on average losing 25% of the value of their pension.

Teachers at the conference also challenged the idea of having to work beyond the age of 65.

"Can you imagine being a reception teacher and trying to get on and off those little chairs at 68? I think not," said history teacher, Alice Robinson.

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DAILY MAIL group: We stopped the Tories putting 'offensive' policies into action, says Vince Cable


FROM THE DAILY MAIL Online, accessible on the INTERNET at 0730 Hrs GMT Wednesday 20 April 2011


We stopped the Tories putting

'offensive' policies into action, says Vince Cable

By TIM SHIPMAN
Last updated at 7:58 AM on 20th April 2011

Fresh outburst: Vince Cable

Fresh outburst: Vince Cable

Vince Cable has launched another assault on the Tories, saying he felt ‘revulsion’ at Conservative policies.

In an astonishing attack on his Coalition partners, the Business Secretary boasted that the Liberal Democrats have ‘stopped’ the Conservatives from doing ‘many of those things that people found offensive’.

Mr Cable made his remarks in an interview with BBC Scotland in an effort to drum up votes for the local elections north of the border, where the Tories are still seen as toxic.

They comprise the latest in a string of outbursts by the Lib Dem Cabinet minister, who appears to be trying to goad David Cameron into firing him.

Mr Cable boasted that he was part of the ‘very strong anti-Tory aggressive tradition in Scottish politics’ when he ‘led and was active in Labour politics in Scotland in the early Seventies’.

He said: ‘I very much understand the tradition and I do understand the kind of revulsion that people had, from some of the policies of the 1980s and the poll tax and the massive run-down of the manufacturing industry.

‘What we have done in this government is stopped a Conservative government doing many of those things that people in Scotland found offensive, and we have concentrated, for example, in lifting low-earners out of tax, not cutting taxes for the very wealthy.’

He also claimed the Lib Dems secured a renewal of the link between pensions and earnings – a policy of Mr Cameron’s for years before the election.

Yesterday the Prime Minister dismissed Mr Cable’s dissent as ‘noises off’ and praised him as one of the ‘big beasts’ of the Cabinet.

He said: ‘Everyone has their own way of expressing things. We [the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives] are two separate parties, but the reason for having a coalition today is as good as it was a year ago . . . two parties came together in the national interest to deal with the legacy of debt and deficit and deep economic problems that we inherited.’

Coalition 'tensions': David Cameron

Coalition 'tensions': David Cameron

He added: ‘I feel as Prime Minister that the Coalition work well together. Of course, coalitions have their tensions and difficulties and noises off and the rest of it, and you have to be a bit relaxed about that.’

However, even Lib Dems are privately expressing disquiet at Mr Cable’s recent pronouncements.

The Business Secretary raised eyebrows with an attack on Mr Cameron’s recent speech on immigration, calling his comments ‘very unwise’ and accusing him of ‘fanning the flames of extremism’.

He compounded his troubled position by boasting this week that he could double his salary outside of the Cabinet. It has also emerged that Mr Cable urged a constituent who runs a private college to launch legal action against the UK Borders Agency.

In December he angered Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg after he told female reporters posing as constituents he had the ‘nuclear’ option of bringing down the Coalition by walking away from the Government.

He also bragged that he had ‘declared war’ on Rupert Murdoch over the tycoon’s plans to acquire BSkyB – which saw the Prime Minister strip him of all responsibility on media policy.



Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1378730/Vince-Cable-We-halted-offensive-Tory-policies.html#ixzz1K32wA44y