Last Saturday was one of first visits home from university- so I expected there to be a few changes. My lovely mother taking up a new hobby, perhaps? Something mundane like where we keep the jam? However, what I was not expecting to change upon my return was the mindset of my compassionate father. Over morning coffee and BBC Breakfast I found myself scowling over Cameron’s claims that his current pension offer was the best deal on the table and his threats to withdraw it if Wednesday’s strikes go ahead. Half-morning grumpiness and half-fury, I turned to my father to complain, expecting him to agree with me; I was quite wrong. His response sounded like a mix of Cameron sound bites, ‘irresponsible’, ‘unsustainable’, ‘we need to cut the deficit’ ‘…but last government overspent’. I was quite shocked by this outburst. You would have thought someone married to an NHS nurse, who has had countless experiences of good service from the public sector would know how hard they work and how they deserve every single penny of that pension- which, for the majority of public sector workers- isn’t so ‘gold-plated’ after all.
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