Boris Johnson tells the truth about public sector pensions

Where are the politicians who are telling us the truth about the depth of the economic and social challenges facing Britain?

In an occasional series we'll highlight those big beasts who stand up and tell the truth.

Honoured today is Boris Johnson for this observation in his weekly Telegraph column:

"It is incredible but true that the average public sector wage is now higher than the average private sector wage; and public sector pensioners can still generally expect a final salary pension scheme – and these can be very generous indeed. In local government, for instance, you can expect to be awarded one sixtieth of your final salary for every year of service. So if you are a chief executive or other senior official, on a salary of more than £200,000, and you have worked for 30 years – well, you do the maths. It is a very generous deal, and speaking as a former MP and current Mayor, I hesitate to knock it, and I only do so because it is unsustainable. With firms now laying off staff in their thousands, with unemployment apparently set to hit three million for the first time since the 1980s, it is simply too much to expect council-tax payers to scrimp and save to pay for the pensions of local government's colossal clerisy, when those pensions are so much more comfortable than anything they could afford themselves."

MPs Brian Binley and Mark Field also deserve credit, of course.

Tim Montgomerie

Comments

[Henry Mayhew - ukipper]

How about honouring your own readers like me who have been saying it for five years, in my case after making the effort to sit on David Willetts' pensions policy committee for two years to argue the toss.

How about honouring me for saying we can't afford Trident or the aircraft carriers. That we can't afford not to have Grammar schools. That we can't afford Labour's tax and spend policies. That we definitely can't afford the EU and the Lisbon constitution, whether it's been ratified or not.

[josh]

Can anyone tell me how much Boris gets paid annually for his weekly scribes in the Telegraph?

[The Bishop Swine]

Well of course we should be outraged that the private sector has had its often very good pension schemes closed as a result of Brown's wholesale theft. If we fail to tackle the public sector pensions time bomb we will have unaffordable levels of taxes. I suspect that for most of us old age will be a time of increasing poverty. Just as private schemes had to fold when it became impossible to continue providing, so will the public sector pension funds also become a thing of the past. Many people will find themselves without the possibility of building up such a generous provision. I can see most people having to work until they are unable to work anymore and then facing years of grinding poverty. When you consider that before Blair we had the best pensions provision in Europe and possible the most widespread in the western world, it makes you very angry indeed. Of course for many help will not come in time, even if we are elected tomorrow. Even with a Conservative government this will be an extremely difficult problem to solve.

[Marian]

"Can anyone tell me how much Boris gets paid annually for his weekly scribes in the Telegraph?"

And can you tell us how much you earn.

[David Cooper]

No one is coerced into buying the Telegraph.

[josh]

"And can you tell us how much you earn"

Of course I can. As a trainee Solicitor in the first year of my training contract, I earn £36k rising to £45k next year and then £63k in my final year.

Now, can you answer my question please?

[T Driver]

A multi-millionaire complaining about public workers pensions......oh the irony.

[Sousbois]

"Can anyone tell me how much Boris gets paid annually for his weekly scribes in the Telegraph?"

Why on earth would you think that is at all relevant?

[josh]

I was just curious. I thought it might be a little hypocritical of him to say these things when he clearly is an extremely wealthy individual. You see he gives the example of Chief Executives. He fails to mention the final salary pension scheme that our amazing nurses receive, but come under the same umbrella.

[T Driver]

Josh - the amazing thing is who do you think these Chief Executives who earn £200,000 + will be voting for....err.

[josh]

Indeed 'T'. I am with you on this one, oh the irony.

[pp]

I don't see how it is ironic, but whatver, at least a high profile politician is making the basic point...

The wealth consuming public sector pays better than the wealth generating private sector.

The pension bill is through the roof.

What makes anyone think that future workers are going to tolerate this burden?

[Bishop Hill]

OK, but why should a factory worker pay more into nurses' pensions than into his own?

[John Broughton]

Josh:

"Can anyone tell me how much Boris gets paid annually for his weekly scribes in the Telegraph?"

And exactly how is that relevant to the topic under discussion?

[Conservative Homer]

None of this will matter when (and it is when, not if) the IMF comes in and declares us bankrupt and voids public sector pensions.

Something about Labour governments, the IMF, and bringing this country to its knees.

The next 20 years will be hell, whatever happens.

[Steve Tierney]

All public sector pensions need to be brought in line with private sector pensions.

While we're at it, lets try and save about 70% on the payroll bill for the public sector too.

First by cutting the wages of all those people earning 35,000, or 45,000 or 120,000 down to the sort of wage people earn when they aren't being paid for by other folk who actually generate real wealth.

Then by getting rid of every pointless penpusher, unelected quango and dreamily-titled make-worker.

Honestly, it's like we live in the land of make-believe. And people think its sustainable? I'd prescribe a dose of realism, but we're getting that already via the Free Market's giant buckaroo.

[Tarquin]

"Boris Johnson tells the truth about public sector pensions."

Really? Did he tell the truth about the majority, nurses, teachers, cleaners, care workers? Or did he just pick on the tiny number of chief executives? Most of these pensions are based on eightieths, of a fairly small salary to start with.

"Of course I can. As a trainee Solicitor in the first year of my training contract, I earn £36k rising to £45k next year and then £63k in my final year."

The majority of public sector workers will never earn this amount, not even after a lifetime of service.

[Steve Tierney]

Tarquin,

Most of us approve of decent wages for nurses, teachers, police etc. Its the legions of unnecessary council workers and the ridiculous bloated quangos which infest every corner of our infrastructure that get paid too much for doing little we really need.

[Jamie]

Perhaps BoJo should focus on his day job, the one which the taxpayer pays him to do. Hmmm.... his public sector salary isn't higher than his private sector salary is it?

[Tim Montgomerie]

I honour you Henry - at least for some of your great thoughts :-)

You and I are just agitators though. Boris is an elected figure who might just be able to act on the truth...

[Leo Enticknap]

"Can anyone tell me how much Boris gets paid annually for his weekly scribes in the Telegraph?"

That's irrelevant to this discussion, because whatever he's being paid by the Telegraph is not coming from taxpayers. If you don't want to pay him, don't buy the paper (which is what I do on principle when any day's print edition includes an article by Bryony Gordon - that vacuous idiot should be exiled to the red tops ASAP). It would be a relevant question if he was writing in The Guardian, though, given the amount of money it effectively gets in public subsidy through all those pages of public sector job ads. It is also relevant for any licence fee payer to ask how much Johnson was paid by the BBC for his appearances on Have I Got News For You?.

The issue that has not really been addressed in both the bankers' bonuses debate and over public sector pensions is to distinguish between junior and middle-ranking staff, for whom the bonus/pension is an essential and entirely justified part of the renumeration package, and senior management/directors, for whom it is often obscene and unjustified, especially when their performance has not met expectations.

The trainee solicitor who posted above will be earning £63k after only three years and before he's even fully qualified. When I was a trainee academic (i.e. a PhD student) I received a research council grant of just under £5k per annum for all three years, and had to take a full-time job in a cinema alongside my studies to make ends meet. I was not fully qualified even to apply for an entry level position in my chosen career until the age of 26 (i.e. I was unable to start saving for a pension when most people are), and as a university lecturer with eight years' experience I now earn just under £40k. Unless I get a chair (a level of promotion which only around 6-8% of academics ever achieve), the most I will ever earn will be around £55k in today's money. Yet many would regard my pay and final salary pension as unsustainable, public sector fat cattery, including, perhaps, the junior bank clerk on £14k whose £1k bonus will make a real difference to their standard of living. I wonder if Prescott realises that it's this sort of worker who'll get it in the neck if his campaign to ban bank bonuses succeeds?

[Marian]

"Of course I can. As a trainee Solicitor in the first year of my training contract, I earn £36k rising to £45k next year and then £63k in my final year."

I do respect you for calling by bluff, but truth is Boris hasn't been so open with me, and I would not expect him to. I imagine that you believe that your paypacket is fully deserved despite it being higher than many highly skilled blue collar workers will ever receive. Your wages are set to rise even higher, as your are still training.
Three is still a very large divide between so called professional jobs, like the one you do and the highly skilled technical jobs such as tool making, which the country is absolutely dependant on. Even those with engineering Degrees are still under paid. Is it any wonder that we still have far to many graduates doing law etc, when we need many more doing electrical eng, Sciance's etc etc.

[josh]

Marian.

That is the most sensible post that I have ever seen on this forum. And I do feel very privileged to be in the position I am in, considering my very humble background.

I agree that we need to get more people into engineering and the 'making industry's'. But please do remember that we had a thriving steel industry in this country, and I really don't want to keep dragging up the past...... but it was Mrs. 'T' that destroyed it.

[josh]

After a little bit of research I found that Boris is paid the following.

Mayor of London £138,000

Column writer in The Daily Telegraph. (£245,001-£250,000)

Articles for GQ Magazine. (Up to £5,000)

Book publishing contract Harper Collins. (Up to £5,000)

Book contract from AP Watt publishers. (£30,001-£35,000)

[Marian]

" really don't want to keep dragging up the past...... but it was Mrs. 'T' that destroyed it"

I agree with you on that as well, although it was more complex than simple bloody minded destruction.There was an over production of steel on a world scale at the time and the subsidy we were paying British Steel was unsustainable. I was not a great fan of Mrs T. most especially in the period 1981-84. However her strong leadership did help us rebuild Britain as a service industry centered economy. Now of course we can see clearly that it was a mistake, even if it did work pretty well for most of 20 years. We are it seems back at square one with a pressing need to rebuild our manufacturing infrastructure. I just hope that D.C. is the man to get the job done and put Britain back on the rock of manufacturing and high productivity.

[josh]

Once again I agree with most of what you say.

Unfortunately I don't think Mr. Cameron is the man to sort this mess out. I think one day he would make a reasonable PM, however at the moment I really do not trust him.Once we are through this recession, he like Blair in his prime will bring fresh ideas to our country. Unfortunately I could not trust him one little bit to sort out the economy. Plus his PR stunts and opportunism are become more and more transparent.

As for his sidekick, young Georgy, well what can I say about him? If Mr.Cameron wants to change the face of the Conservative party, and he is doing a pretty good job of that. He needs to get shot of George. He really does bring back terrible memories of an old Conservative party.And I read over the weekend that he is thinking of bringing Michael Howard back into the cabinet. Surely these will leave him wide open to any pre-election mud slinging.

[pp]

Marion,

I disagree that moving to a service based economy was a mistake. I beleive it was the right thing for the time.

The mistake was Blair, Brown and Labour not understanding what was going on, being awash with money and wasting that money on 'spending' which they pretended (and continue to pretend) was 'investment'.

The money labour have wasted could easily have been invested in encouraging an expansion of the private sector in all its forms (services and manufacturing etc)-- instead it was spent on public sector consumption.

The required transformation can't happen overnight, the difference between the tories and labour is (I hope) that labour are faffing around trying to pretend that the party isn't well and truely over -- while the tories know that we have a generation of rebuilding/repair to be done.

[David_at_Home]

"Of course I can. As a trainee Solicitor in the first year of my training contract, I earn £36k rising to £45k next year and then £63k in my final year."

My son has a PhD in molecular biology and is working on research of national importance. His salary is considerably less than that of a “first year trainee solicitor”.

I am a professional engineer; when I managed multi tens of millions pounds state of the art engineering development projects, my salary was about £65K. The approximately 100 professional engineers, mostly with academic qualifications considerably in excess of those required by a “trainee solicitor” and with much practical experience too, were generally paid a lot less than I.

There is something rotten in the state of Britain and it is not only in the public sector.

[josh]

'There is something rotten in the state of Britain and it is not only in the public sector.'

I totally agree with you............

"After a little bit of research I found that Boris is paid the following.

Mayor of London £138,000

Column writer in The Daily Telegraph. (£245,001-£250,000)

Articles for GQ Magazine. (Up to £5,000)

Book publishing contract Harper Collins. (Up to £5,000)

Book contract from AP Watt publishers. (£30,001-£35,000"

[Jack Stone]

Boris is in fact an hypocrite. His salary for being Mayor is going up by three thousand ponds this coming year. If people are being paid to much lets start at the top first!!

[Super Blue]

I see that Boris is being given thousands of ponds. Is he addicted to angling?

[The Bishop Swine]

Of course he is over paid. Or is it more a case that the majority are exploited? The recession is only making the differential
even harder to justify. Most of the real root of this recession can be traced to mc wages and mc consumables. If the general public was sitting on Billions of savings rather than trillions of debt, and were able to work for nothing the greedy capitalists would screw it up. I have no time for Labour their whole political philosophy is corrupting. Boris has my vote because Boris is daring enough to point to the ridiculous nature of a minimum wage and a Tax credit sub to the lazy owners. Look at Woolworth a perfectly viable company allowed to fail, because of a comnpleat lack of vision on behalf of senior managers, by incompetant and under trained middle managers. How come they were able to make such a large floor area unprofitable. By the end they could have sold anything, so keen were their final customers. If they had more stock they could have continued as a discounter. Lazy sub competent Administrators should be ashamed of their lack of entrepreneurial spunk.