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Firefighters are in the right

Fire Minister Brandon Lewis brandishes the usual red herring

Fire Minister Brandon Lewis brandishes the usual red herring over firefighters' pensions by pointing out that that theirs is "one of the most generous public pension schemes."

This is partly because so many other schemes have been degraded by the systematic attack on them as part of the government's austerity agenda.

It also reflects that firefighters pay a serious chunk of their salaries in pension contributions - £320 a month in most cases - to provide for a more comfortable retirement.

Those contributions are rising on a monthly basis at a time when the government is planning to force firefighters to work for longer or face earlier short-changed retirement on fitness grounds.

The old adage that firefighters are the people who run towards fires and other disasters while others run away is a reminder of what an important public service they carry out.

This awareness also explains why these brave and principled public-sector workers are respected throughout society.

There is something inherently distasteful about a privately educated politician, lawyer and company director lecturing firefighters about them having "one of the most generous public pension schemes" without mentioning that his own is superior.

While MPs contribute a sizeable monthly contribution at 13.75 per cent of salary, the taxpayer adds the equivalent of a further 28.7 per cent of salary.

This gives MPs' pensions an accrual right of one-fortieth of salary for each year of service, or roughly £1,643, which is a similar sum to the total pension awarded to "pampered" low-paid civil and public servants.

Many MPs work hard and give good service to constituents who would not begrudge their political representatives a comfortable retirement.

But if public service and readiness to face danger to protect people's lives and property are factored in, the firefighters' case is eminently more defensible.

Lewis prides himself on getting good value for the taxpayer and being open in his expenses claims, although this may require some creative explanation.

He claimed last year to be saving the exchequer £8,000 a year by renting a property in his Great Yarmouth constituency rather than in London.

But he already owned a house in his constituency, which he could simply have lived in rather than letting it out and renting somewhere else in a complicated manoeuvre that might leave many firefighters scratching their heads.

Because of government intransigence and its determination to make public-sector workers pay for the crisis created by private-sector bankers, firefighters will be on picket lines this morning instead of doing their normal work.

Fire authorities will have to hire expensive contractors who lack firefighters' special expertise.

In fact, the public knows that it can rely on Fire Brigades Union members to switch in an instant from being trade unionists on the picket line to dedicated firefighters in their appliances in the event of a life-threatening emergency.

That is the essence of the special people known as firefighters. Their priorities are saving lives and protecting property.

Their attention should not be diverted by worries about whether they will be retired early on fitness grounds and forced to spend their later years facing economic hardship.

All trade unionists should encourage their FBU comrades to stick to their guns in a just cause, beeping their support to picket lines as they go past or stopping to offer their best wishes to a decent but ill-used workforce.

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