The most striking statistic from Liberal Democrat conference

Our place to talk – an independent website for supporters of the Liberal Democrat party in the UK.

The most-read independent website by and for Lib Dem supporters. Not paid for by trade unions or millionaires.

Advert

The most striking statistic from Liberal Democrat conference

By Mark Pack | Thu 22nd September 2011 - 8:50 am

Follow @markpack

Steve Webb, speaking to Lib Dem conference:

I found out that I was, indeed, the 11th different pensions minister in the last 14 years.

Read more by Mark Pack or more about pensions or steve webb.
This entry was posted in Conference.

Advert

2 Comments

Ian Sanderson (RM3) 23rd Sep '11 - 8:59am

The implication being that, with too frequent reshuffles, the department then becomes too much the creature of its civil servants.
Steve, of course, had the advantage of having having worked on the subject for a lot of the last 20 years, at least, and thus already understood his brief.
Pensions is one of the most long-term issues that a government deals with, and needs a wise and informed minister. (As an example, I have been a member of the same pension scheme, as contributor or pensioner, since before Steve was born.)
Old Codger Chris 25th Sep '11 - 11:18am

The state of some Occupational Pensions in this country is a national disgrace – legalised robbery in some cases. Eleven ministers in fourteen years sums up the neglect by governments ever since Barbara Castle tried to introduce a proper scheme.

I’ve heard that the Australian system works well.

Post a Comment

Lib Dem Voice welcomes comments from everyone but we ask you to be polite, to be on topic and to be who you say you are. You can read our comments policy in full here. Please respect it and all readers of the site.

To have your photo next to your comment please signup your email address with Gravatar.

Your email is never published. Required fields are marked *

Name *

Email *

Website

Comment

Please complete the name of this site, Liberal Democrat ...?

Most Read

Op-eds

Mathew on Monday: Burnham has made a promising start. Now comes the hard part (Mathew Hulbert)
Orange with Bits (Brendan Roberts)
If Andy Burnham isn’t the Messiah… Good (Roz Savage MP)
Vince Cable writes: The rebirth of council housing (Vince Cable)
Britain should confront history honestly, not selectively (Gavin Stollar)

Advert

Recent Comments

John Reed
An excellent overview, thank you Vince. The larger developers do seem to have considerable power to control...
Alex Macfie
AI can't even judge whether text is AI generated — even deciding something is AI because it uses proper punctuation. My em-dashes are human generated. ——�...
Alex Macfie
AI is indeed massively over-hyped, as @John C and @cim have pointed out. It is a bubble and it will burst, and once the dust has settled AI (or machine learning...
Peter Davies
@Peter Martin. That is a real problem for those who believe in devolution. Part of the problem is that we have a social services system where local governme...
Andrew Tampion
' “The UK raises less than 6% of tax revenue locally…” Is this a bad thing? National taxes are going to be fairer' Maybe but if too much "local" governm...