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Posts Tagged ‘Pensions’

I should be neither unkind nor unfair but I was not that impressed with an article in the Independent today written by a lady called Yvonne Roberts and entitled; “The age of the aged has at Long Last Arrived.” The link as follows: http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/yvonne-roberts-the-age-of-the-aged-has-at-long-last-arrived-1855413.html

I thought the article rather lightweight simply because in a style typical of people like her, there is far too much “either/or” rather than  “and”, life is not simple, it is complex and “individual people” based but, read and judge for yourself. To say that the old are wise and the young foolish maybe correct in some cases, the point is, it is not true in all cases and likely, not in most either.

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Apparently the other day, a Labour Housing Minister addressing the Fabian Society said that the era in which all Britons can aspire to own their own home may be coming to an end. He suggested that Britain may be moving towards a European model, with renting on a roughly equal footing with buying.

He then said that home ownership had fallen from 71 per cent of households in 2003 to 68 per cent today, noting that this trend began in 2005, well before the recession. “I’m not sure that’s such a bad thing,” he said, what a prat ! I notice he neglected to mention the uncontrolled immigration during that same period.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/its-time-to-give-up-the-dream-of-home-ownership-says-minister-1838189.html

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Whilst we can all be grateful for the fallout from the Telegraph’s expose on MPs expenses which has shaken the general public out of their normal torpor, it is not yet clear where this may end or where it will take us to in terms of meaningful Constitutional Reforms but something else is certain…

I keep banging on about the economy and the need for there to be a General Election sooner rather than later and my views seem to have been backed up today by Edmund Conway writing in the Telegraph, this is where it is really at…

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Joanna Lumley who is rather more than still “top totty” despite being over 60, has led an inspired campaign based upon personal conviction concerning Gurkha settlement rights driven by the fact her Father served with them in action.

People who like to snipe, complain about her “celebrity status” and yet over many years, she has earned it through hard work as model and actress. This is no air head famous for being famous or being in the jungle or on Big Brother, this is a very smart and articulate lady who carries herself with dignity, grace and as is now clear, is totally lethal.

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I was torn between calling this essay, “Buddy can you spare a dime ?” and “Move Over Darling” but decided against both because they were far too light hearted. Following today’s blatantly political “do nothing Budget”, the situation is far more serious, things have got worse.

Like most political lobby journalists who get too close to their “prey”, I have little time for Nick Robinson of the BBC but to be fair he made a very good point today. He called this an historic Budget because of the circumstances but, if Darling’s rather optimistic growth assumptions don’t materialise, the next Budget will be truly Historic !

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The question that surrounds the Home Secretary is whether she can survive in her current job, the answer I suspect is that yes she can and will, but not because of any personal merit. Without being partisan, she has a poor track record, has demonstrated that she is incompetent, unlucky or a combination of both plus has a very marginal seat.

Bearing in mind the the former “Home Office” has been divided into two, Home and Justice, one wonders just how much worse she might have been with the full job. However the truth is that she is symptomatic of a Government on its last legs and is hardly much different from all the other talentless deadbeats that collect around the Cabinet Table in Drowning Street.

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I have written before about the deplorable Bob Quick over the Damien Green Affair and Mrs Quick’s wedding car hire service run from their home:- http://baldysblog.co.uk/2008/12/21/an-early-retirement-decision/

His latest cock up was to walk into Downing Street for a meeting and clearly on show, a detailed A4 summary sheet of an on-going anti-terror operation which was photographed by the crowd of press photographers and transmitted around the world before you could say “Bob Quick”. The man should have been fired last time, finally the creep has resigned but this ‘blog’ is not about these events, it is about Public Service Pensions.

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A Tory Party poll was conducted to ask whether given the likely economic circumstances, Cameron’s Team should with regard to policy go for: (a), Maximum openness – 33% (b). Medium Openness – 35% or, Minimum Openness – 29%.

The closeness of the result indicates the problem that all the political parties currently face as evidenced by the polls which may well be totally inaccurate and even, deliberately misleading. That the public are “angry” with their politicians must be totally obvious to anybody sitting inside the Palace of Westminster in possession of even half a functioning brain but few or none have yet to grasp a solution…

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The problem with Gordon Brown is simply that he just doesn’t grasp the significance of events as they develop and consequently, he is far too slow to take positive action. I suppose if I was being unkind, because Labour is so used to making “policy announcements” over the years and likely only 25% of which turned into some kind of action, talk rather than action is all to him.

The fuss about MP’s expenses and allowances in one sense, is not that important of itself. At times such as these, people will pick on most things where “people in power” seem rather cavalier with public money however, not dealing with the situation decisively, can only make matters worse. David Cameron’s words today were right, “Let us meet and sort it out, we don’t need to wait on this one…” Well something along those lines, let’s face it, it isn’t rocket science…

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In some ways and based upon whenever I’ve seen him interviewed, I have quite liked Tony McNaulty because he seemed a far more solid chap than the average Labour Cabinet Minister. However his involvement in the current Parliamentary expenses scandal and his lack of honesty merely demonstrates that there is absolutely no one in this Government of any integrity what so ever.

It is also perfectly clear that there needs to be a radical reform of how much, what and under what rules, any Member of Parliament gets paid, the current situation being clearly no longer tenable and clearly, MPs of all parties being far too venial to produce decent and transparent changes to clean up Parliament’s oh so tarnished reputation.

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