Public sector strikes won't defuse Britain's demographic timebomb. The fastest growth in the pensioner population in the whole of the 21st century will take place in this Parliament, writes Lucy Parsons.

A teacher forms part of a picket line outside Stretford High School in Manchester Photo: PA

By Lucy Parsons – The Telegraph, UK

Today 750,000 teachers and civil servants will go on strike over the Government’s proposed changes to public sector pensions. Union leaders say the changes will leave their members working longer, paying more and getting less from the state. It's not an easy sell, but they are absolutely right. With a shortfall of £10 billion in 2008-09 in the public sector pension pot and a rapidly growing number of retirees, the generous pensions public sector workers have until now enjoyed will have to be a thing of the past.

For full article:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/8607874/Public-sector-strikes-wont-defuse-Britains-demographic-timebomb.html

Lucy Parsons is Research and Corporate Partnership Director at Reform (www.reform.co.uk) and a co-author of the report 'Old and Broke’ published yesterday.