Orkney MP secures BP a 3 hour pension debate – DWP mulls further consultations

Mike Slingsby, who has been doing more than most to bring the BP pensioner’s claims to public attention told the BP Pension Group (BPPG)

Another good day’s work which will see the BP Pensions Scandal feature in Hansard again!

Our democratic system where MPs are both national legislators and local representative serves pensions well. We have seen the cause of the former BSPS steelworkers championed by Smith and Kinnock in South Wales. The same is happening for oil workers around Great Britain.

Alistair Carmichael, MP for Orkney & Shetland, has BP Sullom Voe in his back yard, another MP- Justin Madders has picked up that Shell Pensioners are in the same situation. He has Stanlow Refinery in his Ellesmere Port constituency ,  a third MP is Wendy Chamberlain, from Fife, the location of the JV Cracker at Mossmoran.

J V Cracker

All three have  been supporting the BP Pensioners case.

I  look forward to watching the forthcoming Westminster debate on Parliament TV . It may not get the attention of the pension press , who too often seem more concerned with the extraction of rents from pension funds than the payment of benefits. But the debate should get coverage from a national press for whom pensions are the tangible reward for years of service.

In January, Carmichael referred to the BP Pensioners as “the Canary in the Coalmine”. To his credit, Jack Grey of Pension Age reported  the Canary in January

MP for Orkney and Shetland, Alistair Carmichael, said that BP appeared to be “dealing from the bottom of the deck” regarding pension decisions made by the directors.

He called on BP’s leadership to spend time talking to the scheme’s pensioners in a “serious and meaningful way”.

Carmichael described the dispute as the equivalent of a “canary in a coalmine” for defined benefit (DB) pensions in the UK, and warned that what happens to the BP Pensioner Group could happen to others.

“That’s why this is a matter to which the government must now turn its close urgent attention,” he added.

Carmichael’s evocative rhetoric went down well with the pensioners , Slingsby writing

Let’s all hope that the ‘Canary in the Coal Mine’ get’s another mention from Alistair Carmichael! The Canary could well become our new BPPG Mascot !

More blue tit than canary , but right idea Mike!

Another former Shell oil-worker , Paul Poultney posted