Lunchboxlegend,
I agree entirely - they are all as bad as each other. But right now, frankly I can't help but feel the cure is worse than the illness. If I have to listen to Cameron and Osborne remind us how we are all in it together just once more, I'd be sorely tempted to write to my local MP pointing out that this is nothing more than Animal Farm writ large. We are all in this together, but some are in it more than others.
Barring the odd Guards and Cavalry Regts, the vast majority of the Forces fall squarely into the squeezed middle. But not only are we getting squeezed on a daily basis, the Forces have been squeezed further by successive chancellors, and not just in terms of overall equipment levels. During the good times when pay rises across the country were heading north, the Forces' weren't; our pay rises were capped in the interests of preventing inflation - like our pay levels would have an impact on inflation compared to the sort of rises doing the rounds in the City and FTSE 100 boards. Now the country is heading south we are getting squeezed again in an attempt to bolster the government's incoherent and dubious policies. And again, in the grand scheme of things, what our pensions would cost is small change in comparison with what the government doles out to the EU and on various other pet projects and the likely costs incurred when our pensions are whittled down to levels that are so low we are forced into the arms of the benefits system once retired. Whether by design, by accident or through ignorance, the impact of what they are doing will condemn us all to a life of working til we drop.
Our pensions were changed from 75 to 05 not out of the goodness of their hearts, but to save money. The change from RPI to CPI - of which a number of institutions such as the Bank of England have not adopted - will cost the average person thousands over the years, the introduction of pensions tax rules that leads to tax bills on promotion and now potentially taxing gratuities - the electorally safe option and therefore most likely compared to binning tax relief on contributions - will drive yet another nail into the Forces' coffin.
But unlike the rest of the country we have no one to fight out corner and frankly we are getting done over because we are the easy option. Those at the top won't rock the boat too hard; they'll do just enough to cause a ripple in the afternoon sherries being passed around the mandarins' offices so as to be seen to be doing something, but precious little else lest they damage their carefully engineered escape route. With all that happening to our pensions inside a few short years I don't see how anybody can say we aren't getting screwed over royally. The only voice we have will come at the next election, but with the ever shrinking size of the Forces, we would be lucky to be able to oust just one or 2 MPs in the election through protest votes even if we could pool all our votes. But if it helps ease the pain, remember we're all in it together and it's for the benfit of the country
