We in pensions have spent time in parliament (or perhaps watching what happens in parliament’s Government Committee) surprised that the plans of a radical Pension Schemes Bill have been so opposed by such a wide range of pension organisations. In particular I am thinking of the opposition to the proposed power within Government to require workplace pensions to invest in the UK and in parts are stock exchange does not trade.
“Get real” cried the Pension Ministers in Edinburgh earlier this year. “The Mansion House Compact isn’t working” cried the Pension Minister in parliament last week. Meanwhile , as our pension institution talks about fiduciary duties, the country turns its back on our constitution and says it has more time for Reform.
I think there is a conversation to be had with Farage and Tice and the small team of leaders who lead that movement and if we are not careful, they will take over the conversation and good people will be shut out. I have focussed on Tice’s comments about LGPS. LGPS is a success story but it allowing itself to to be considered “egregious” by Reform, because it is not part of the proposition. I was very pleased to see how LGPS book-ended the second half of the General Commission’s inquest into the Pension Schemes Bill. Now , its superstars – such as Phillips and Elwell to start speaking to the millions of ordinary people who have turned to Reform in the past few years.
This FT s article on Reform that sparked me to blog, is about a Reform thinker – John Brown – who argues that the way that Trump has quickly stolen the American constitution from civil servants and the judiciary and lodged it with a reformed Republican Party, is a model for what Reform is going to do in the UK.
Those who think that arguments over the pin’s head which is the power of Government to direct money, (much of which is redirected from tax-take), back into British growth, mean anything, should listen to Torsten Bell and “get real”.
In the real world that happens outside our cosy fiduciary discussions and insured perimeters, there is need for us to link out pension schemes back to the people who they are for later on. They are the people who are paying for them now and precious little evidence do they have that the mass of capital they have amassed is doing them and their families much good.
Yes I want Britain to pay attention to its pension but I want that to mean more than pay more away from pay. I want people to ask the kind of questions that Tice is asking and demanding that pensions stand up and deliver hope to our economy. We have allowed our DB schemes to have been weakened almost to a point where they have no long-term future but I believe that collective pensions will make their way back if we can get Reform and those they stand for to understand that we can get our act together.
We need unions to be more vocal , we need large employers to punch their weight and we need a wave of younger (much younger than me) enthusiasts to come through and show leadership.
I look at this picture above and wonder if the football team that Farage is the no 10 striker for might not be showing pensions the way to go about playing in the premier league.
We should consider the picture below and ask if we are really investing in Britain by handing over our pension schemes to American Private Equity firms and our funds to globally diversified indexed funds with nugatory investments into the UK.
I don’t think Reform has the answer but it is asking the right questions.
