A Nation of Strikers

Napoleon once said that the United Kingdom was "a nation of shopkeepers" something he meant as an insult but which we took to heart and are proud of. Now I wonder, if someone remarked that we were a nation of strikers would be hold the title as proudly? Strikes seem to be rife in the last few decades- tube workers, public sector workers, miners. You name the job, they've probably striked.

Striking seems to be the first port of call for any dispute and is something which not only disrupts that particular area but can have a knock on effect for the entire country. Today the topic is once again in the news as public sector workers downed tools over rows about pensions. Among the picket liners were teachers, customs officers and job centre workers. The row, as far as I can gather, is because they are expected to work for longer, increase the amount of money they put into their pension and not have a pay increase. These are necessary measures for the future. The pension age has not been reconsidered for many years but the age at which we are dying has risen substantially. So the state is paying for people to be retired for longer.

In case you hadn't noticed, we are in a recession. The only way we can get out of a recession is to save money and it seems billions a year being saved by raising the retirement age seems like a small sacrifice for those of us it will affect. The one thing you should know about me before we get into my whole argument is that I am not political. At least I wasn't until I came to university. I got caught up in the politics of our students union for two years, then the general election came along and being one of the most interesting and closely contested in years, it was rather gripping. Ever since, I've paid a lot more attention to the world. I still have no political leaning- I wholeheartedly hate Nick Clegg for reneging on his promise to students that got him into government in the first place, but that doesn't mean I support all of Labour's policies, nor do I support all of Cameron's.

But on the pensions and retirement argument I can see the logic in raising the age of retirement. All the health freaks out there that made us panic about eating too much red meat, white meat, fish, eggs, ice cream, tea or any other such ludicrous idea they come up with next (I'm sure the Daily Mail will have one for us in the morning) now have to deal with the consequences of making us all much healthier. The consequence is that we are living longer but working the same length of time we were working a decade ago.

Therefore, we need to work for longer, stop relying on the government to keep us going until we pop our clogs. Unfortunately that means that some people, myself included, are now looking at an extra four or five years of work. And for some people retirement was close and now is much further. But, someone had to make the sacrifice, and would we rather be selfish now and argue the point so that our children and grandchildren have to work an extra ten or twenty years on top of what they will have to now? Wouldn't we rather make the small sacrifice ourselves than see our country bankrupt just in time for our future generations to pick up the pieces??

Personally I think that future generations have enough to deal with- global warming is supposedly going to drown the entire world in their lifetime, the apocalypse will be coming during their time and now we want to dump an extra ten years of work on them just so that we can have 30 years of retirement, rather than 25?? Not for me. I'd rather take the plunge now, stop whining and build a better future for my children, and their children and hopefully their children too.

The strikers today are the most selfish of all. They have pensions, they will have a comfortable retirement while people in the private sectors- the writers, the cleaners, the shop assistants, the people who keep the country ticking over- will be wondering if next week's pension will be enough to keep them warm in the winter. The knock on effect of their day off to complain about how an extra four years of work might lead them to an early grave (when actually statistics show that people who are active, i.e. doing labour every day, live longer) is that the queues to get into the country were twice as long (as if that were even possible), the school children did not get taught and the private sector workers had to lose a days pay to care for their children who should have been in school. And lets face it, their days pay is much more valuable to them than an argument against a government who are happy to negotiate ever could be.

I may not be the most political of people but I know the type of world I want my children to grow up in and I want to know that I have done everything in my power to be the best it could be. Perhaps the teachers should be thinking about the children rather than their retirement fund as well. That's what they're paid for after all.