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Archive for the ‘Community’ Category

A need to save money for old age: “Britons need to save £16,700 more per year to live comfortably, cover long-term care costs, and pay back debts in their retirement.” was a Telegraph headline. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/savings/8501286/UK-faces-9-trillion-savings-shortfall.html

The first thing to note is obvious, just who apart from the very rich, could actually save that amount of cash when an ‘average wage’ is likely only £23-25,000 pa ? Frankly and regardless of the actual amount of money required, I don’t see that as any kind of surprise. When it comes to retirement income, no one has been talking let alone acting sensibly. The discrepancy between the intent and the actual delivery, just doesn’t match up and frankly, never will either as things stand, we need to look at the ‘problem’ differently…

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Yes, I guess that was the ‘moment’ we were all waiting for but, it also represents a Hope, A Hope for national renewal so, let’s just wish them both and us too, “All the Best !”

Well with all the fuss in the run up to the Royal Wedding on Friday, there are bound to be a fair selection of malcontent s and grumpy naysayers on display. There was a Baghot colum in the Economist on just such a note: http://www.economist.com/node/18584926

I don’t know why these people bother, it might be just because they like to moan a lot about anything be it X Factor, Royalty, Coronation Street, Football, Cricket, Tennis, MP’s Expenses… For the terminally grumpy, the list is endless, there will always be something to moan about to keep them “happy” !

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The reality is that the National Health Service, rather like Education, has become a ‘Sacred Cow’ in British Politics and that ‘connection’ truly does need to be broken asap, it clouds all rational debate and discussion.

This is a truly “Difficult Area” for any Government of any political colour and the practical realities have been shrouded in pointless emotion for far too long. Yes, it is good for the present Government to have to “Present and Sell” their proposals to us the public/electorate in some detail but it is also a chance for serious debate.

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Despite the inevitable yobs that attach themselves to any sort of “Demonstration” and end up confronting the Police, last Sunday’s “No Cuts March” went off pretty well considering that possibly 250,000 people took part.

Will it make a difference ? The answer as with the “Countryside Alliance” one that attracted 400,000 opposing the Fox Hunting ban when Blair was PM, is likely NO so, one hopes everybody had a jolly day out and went home with a satisfied self righteous glow in their cheeks.

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Having recently got involved in another waste of time argument about the EU with overseas readers who commentate on the Economist discussion boards and find it impossible to understand why many in the UK want out and from there…It is all a total waste of energy.

However, the useful thing that sometimes emerges from these things is the opportunity to rationalise your own thinking and concentrate on the core reasons for why you hold the opinions you do. Sometimes, your “object”, in my case the EU, is little more than a token for the real problem, something that represents an ‘obstacle’ to solving real world problems but of itself, is probably just not that important.

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It is quite funny how in life, change often creeps up on you and you just suddenly “notice it” although in all truth, only change is a constant in our lives. I always liken it to a spectrum made up of a gradation from black at one end to white at the other. At any moment in time, you are looking at the colour grey but suddenly you realise that this is a darker/lighter grey than the one you had in your mind.

Physical changes as you get older, just creep up on you, it is the way of things but the real difficulty really lies in your own mind because it needs to update the “self images” we hold of ourselves, to adjust to the change in our circumstances and to also appreciate that by being smart, we can create new opportunities for ourselves which accommodate our reduced physical abilities whilst enhancing our intellectual ones. By clinging to the past and ‘resenting’ that we can no longer do rather than looking forward, eagerly to a new and different future, is foolishness.

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There was an interesting article by John Rentoul in the Independent on how David Cameron risks being caught between a ‘pincer movement’ by the Tory Right and the Liberal Elite over the European Court of Human Rights: http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/john-rentoul/john-rentoul-a-pincer-movement-on-no-10-2219869.html#comment-153134186

But as is often the case, it led me to think somewhat beyond the current difficulties of ‘Votes for Prisoners’ and the right for convicted people to ask to be removed from the Sex Offenders Register after a period of time, it leads me to wonder about the practical limits on political power.

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I notice that now the daylight hours are drawing out, Dawn comes slightly earlier, the Earth stirs again and interestingly, so do some ‘thinkers’ in the Media about our technical ‘tomorrow’, my first example being : http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/technology/adrianhon/100006362/soon-you-wont-need-permission-to-make-films-set-up-tv-channels-publish-books-or-try-out-inventions-no-wonder-the-old-industries-are-scared/

But there is something as fascinating in this link from the Economist : http://www.economist.com/node/18114221

These are exciting times…

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It will take your ‘average journalist’ at least 6 months to wake up to what the ‘real story’ is about today, frankly most of them don’t have a clue and as proof, consider the following : http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/charlesmoore/8319768/If-Strasbourg-has-its-way-we-will-all-end-up-as-prisoners.html

All jolly good stuff but all, rather irrelevant given what currently drives the World of which the Egyptian Revolution was but a ‘taste’, the BIG ISSUE this day is Youth Unemployment combined with a ‘mature’ Commercial Sector that couldn’t think their way out of a wet paper bag on their best days which clearly, are long past. We need to engage with our unemployed youth, right across the Western economies, now…

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