>At the same time his BHS business has gone bust with a £500 million hole in its pension fund which will have to be supported by the PPF (Pension Protection Fund) out of public funds. Unrestricted capitalism at its worst.

In this case, the UK treats the workers better than they're treated in the US.
During the early 1980's thanks primarily to the efforts of Ted Kennedy, the US congress passed ERISA - Employment Retirement Income Security Act, which supposedly guaranteed that pension benefits earned by US employees would be there upon retirement.
However, the guaranteeing agency, PBGC - Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation, is seriously underfunded and people in the US are, in fact, losing pensions that they were promised despite ERISA.

Again, see the title of this thread.