Pensions black hole

There is so much that is sleazy and just plain wrong in the stories that are emerging about Gordon Brown’s raid on pensions in his first budget. Its not just that he’s robbed millions of pensioners of security in retirement through his £100 billion stealth tax; not just that he ignored civil servants' advice and destroyed what was one of world's best pension systems; not just that the Treasury's policy papers were released late in the evening of last Friday after Parliament had risen for its Easter recess – all this is what we have now come to expect from Labour. The killer for me is the impact, again ignoring officials advice, on the economy as a whole. In 1997 the stock market was boyant which meant that many pensions funds were in surplus. With the Government taking billions out of pensions, companies had to make up the shortfall which in turn led to lower profits and lower returns to shareholders, the bulk of which are…the pension funds. This contributed to the fall in the stock market shortly after 1997 and anyone with a personal pension plan knows how it’s value fell between around 1999 and 2003/4. So there was a vicious circle in which everyone was a looser. No wonder Labour supporting pensioners have vowed never to vote for the party if Brown becomes leader.