Just as I suspected, Steve, your true colours now on public display. What happened to "We're all in it together, aren't we"? You're all high-and-mighty-principles and "we're all in it together" when you seek to benefit, but when it comes down to it, and you're OK, it's "Fuck you Jack, I'm alright".
What a load of old bollocks. This country has just baled out the miserable failure which is capitalism. The only people "not all in this together" appear to be bankers and their fellow-travellers who are carrying on just as they were before. The teaching and other public sector unions acted extremely responsibly, and in the best interests of the country, in 2007 when they accepted that full pensions would have to be deferred for five years beyond the then retirement age. Not one voice has been raised to say that that was not a good, long-term, sustainable deal. Not one. Yet this benighted lot have torn up that deal. A teacher presently in his or her mid-30s will have to work till 68. Anybody who has ever been in a modern classroom knows that that is a recipe for disaster. Already, without negotiation, the measure on which pension increases are calculated has been downgraded from the RPI to the CPI. Cheating bastards. On top of that, teachers will have to contribute 9.6% of salary into the scheme, up from 6.4%, no negotiation on that little gem either. And, on top of that, teachers have had a two-year pay freeze imposed, at a time when inflation is running at 5%. Work that lot out. In one year an effective pay cut of 8%-plus and the same the following year, worse if inflation keeps rising. No overtime, no perks, no bonuses in teaching! The teachers' scheme as it now stands is sustainable. The government has refused to audit the scheme, something that is now two years overdue, and they won't do it because they know the outcome will be embarrassing. If you think that someone who is blameless in the present mess in that position is "all right Jack" then you've got another think coming. Choose your target with a bit more thought. Leave our bloody pensions alone. They are affordable, sustainable and not that good.