Tuesday saw the vote in the House of Commons to try and block the removal of the winter fuel from all pensioners. 53 Labour MPs abstained, it is thought two of them were Scottish MPs.
Some newspapers are referring to this as a rebellion. How ridiculous, nothing like a rebellion. The meaning of ‘rebellion’ is ‘an outbreak against authority’. Sitting on your hands and refusing to speak up for your constituents is simply mere cowardice. Pleasing their master and protecting their future progress within their party.
It is high time MPs were made accountable for their voting behaviour. Individuals feel they are unable to make themselves heard, which is perfectly true. Sir Keir Starmer addressed the TUC Congress this week and got a bit of a frosty response. However, what are they doing to support pensioners, many of whom would have been a Union member during their working life. I popped over to their web page and looked at their campaigns page. No mention of the winter fuel allowance removal.
I went Googling again to find there is a group called National Pensioners Convention/UK who called this week on MPs to vote to stop removal of the allowance https://www.npcuk.org/post/call-on-mps-to-vote-against-allowance-cuts
Unison say they are the only UK union with a pensioner’s section. This is what they say
‘The latest government figures show that 27% of pensioners live below the poverty line.
UNISON’s retired members campaign for better rights for retired workers in terms of a decent income in older age and better public services.’
However, all their press releases are hammering the Scottish Government about finding more money for wage rises. Nothing that I could find mentioning the hardships facing our pensioners this winter due to cuts made by Westminster.
As I write this a Scottish Labour MP is getting a bit of a pounding on Drivetime. He seems to be getting in a bit of a pickle about voting one way as a UK Labour MP while as a Scottish MP he insists the Scottish Government should find money from their budget to mitigate what he just voted for in Westminster.