Shadow trade and industry secretary David Willetts has suggested employers' contributions to pensions should be 'socialised' - administered if not subsidised by the State.
It would relieve a lot of companies of the admin burden, it's true. It would get around the possibility of fraud - people remembering Robert Maxwell and similar cases might be very pleased that they might in future not have a pension fund to rifle through at will.
It's just a little ironic that this idea should come from the Conservative Party (although Willetts is stressing it's a personal rather than party idea). During my youth I'd have sworn it was they who urged everyone into private, non-Government pension plans in the first place, many of which have now underperformed dangerously.
