Is there pensions apartheid? Well, if you're a nurse there is | Polly Toynbee

False Tory outrage at fat-cat pubic sector benefits is a crude sleight of hand to divert voters' attention from the real wealth gap Indignation at "gold-plated" public sector pensions is the latest wave in the Conservative campaign to create a groundswell of support for spending cuts and shrinking the size of the state. Rightwing thinktanks, encouraged by David Cameron and even by the sainted Vince Cable in the Mail on Sunday, have just produced a series of reports attacking public-sector pensions. It is a deft diversion from the real fat-cat pensions of Fred Goodwin (now reduced to £342,500 a year) and his ilk on to the rather more modest pensions of nurses, teachers and care workers: the average public employee pension is £7,000. It's a well-timed assault, as private-sector employees still lucky enough to have an... [read full story]                    

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