Thanks to Cynical Highlander for pointing out the two different headlines in the Daily Express and their Scottish edition.
So it was pretty much a waste of time Gordon taking time out from his global travel plans to tell us just how miserable our old age would be without the UK's broad shoulders and clout.
There is a superb article over at Wings highlighting the pensions chaos of the UK, together with a few suggestions as to the reasons that pensions are in a mess... mainly Gordon Brown, in case you wondered.
Given the chaos he wrought on pensions when he was in government, you have to wonder why he chose to intervene in the independence debate on this particular subject.
Did it not occur to him that whilst the friendly press would faithfully report his "wisdom", those on the Yes side would highlight his raid tax on pensions of the early years of his chancellorship and his financial mismanagement on Olympian scale of the British economy.
His premiership was marked by, and will be remembered for being, a succession of blunders and ineptitudes.
Did it not occur to him or his advisers, or indeed anyone at the Better Together that this was just what Yes was looking for. Or is it possibly he ran it past them and Alistair Darling thought to himself... "YES!!!!"... if you'll pardon the word.
If this is the start of Brown taking a bigger role in the independence debate, I say, "bring it on".
Things can only get ... ermbetter bitter.
 |
| Thank you Express. We couldn't possibly have done a better job. Have you ever heard of the interweb? |
So it was pretty much a waste of time Gordon taking time out from his global travel plans to tell us just how miserable our old age would be without the UK's broad shoulders and clout.
There is a superb article over at Wings highlighting the pensions chaos of the UK, together with a few suggestions as to the reasons that pensions are in a mess... mainly Gordon Brown, in case you wondered.
Given the chaos he wrought on pensions when he was in government, you have to wonder why he chose to intervene in the independence debate on this particular subject.
Did it not occur to him that whilst the friendly press would faithfully report his "wisdom", those on the Yes side would highlight his raid tax on pensions of the early years of his chancellorship and his financial mismanagement on Olympian scale of the British economy.
His premiership was marked by, and will be remembered for being, a succession of blunders and ineptitudes.
Did it not occur to him or his advisers, or indeed anyone at the Better Together that this was just what Yes was looking for. Or is it possibly he ran it past them and Alistair Darling thought to himself... "YES!!!!"... if you'll pardon the word.
If this is the start of Brown taking a bigger role in the independence debate, I say, "bring it on".
Things can only get ... erm
Ah, dear old Gordon Brown. I wonder whatever happened to him after he left politics. Oh wait a minute he hasn't left politics yet has he, he is STILL M.P. for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath isn't he. Boy I bet all of my fellow Fifers are really proud of all the hard work he is doing for them in Westminster, oh wait a minute he's never there!
ReplyDeleteI wonder what history will say about this Muppet.
Gordon Brown the Chancellor who amongst other things did the following:
1) Sold off UK gold reserve at rock bottom prices.
2) Stole £100 million from National Lottery and never repaid it
3) Initiated annual £5 Billion raid on UK pensions
4) Cut 10p tax rate he introduced a few years earlier but tried to keep it quiet...and FAILED!
5) Agreed to order for Chinook helicopters for Special Forces but REFUSED to pay for the necessary software resulting in Chinooks being grounded for 10 years!
6) Agreed to buy TWO aircraft carriers with a contract that made cancelling the contract for one carrier MORE expensive that buying both carriers. ...go figure!
7) Voted for the war in Iraq but years later *ahem* claimed he was really against it!...HUH!
8) He is the only person in the world to have saved the World! Do Superman and co know about this claim?
9) Utterly failed to provide adequate equipment to UK armed forces for their "fight against evil" in Afghanistan and Iraq.
10) Utterly failed to do anything about the radioactivity on Dalgety Bay beach in his OWN constituency!
Thiunk that will do for now, no doubt other folks can come up with a few other "Brown bites!" :-)
Well the Dear Man also hastened in the PFI schools and hospitals, all off the books don't you know. My pet subject with a starter for ten is the amount that is costing. I know I have a Labour Council so no point in complaining when they use and charge us for blowing water off the playground when it is raining, honest no joke, put enough salt down between the two PFI schools at Duloch to keep the whole of Dunfermline free of ice, and I mean even if we do not get frost. So you can add PFI's to that list. The man is quite honestly an erse.
DeleteOops!
DeleteHow on earth did I forget that one! LOL
Good old PFI. Where would we be without Brown's PFI, well in a far better financial situation for starters I reckon. It's not only schools but hospitals as well, oh and don't forget prisons either. Te newest prison to be built courtesy of PFI would have cost £80 million to build but no they went down the PFI route and it will cost over its lifetime £1BILLION!
Thanks Brown ya MUPPET for absolutely NOTHING!
It's amazing that he should come and lecture us about matters financial. He was completely and utterly incompetent.
DeleteI saw a bit of his speech, and the positive part was that he was smiling as he told us we would be unable to pay pensions without the UK's broad shoulders. (I always think that it's as well they have broad shoulders; after all they have over a trillion pounds of debt. They need broad shoulders.)
Have you seen Stu's analysis of the meat of his speech. I seems it was a pile of unsubstantiated drivel.
http://wingsoverscotland.com/politics-for-vegans/
DeleteAs usual Tris Stu is on the ball. :-)
DeleteIndeed he is and thank goodness for him and for Munguin. I have had my best laugh here today.
DeleteWhat is his pension costing us?
ReplyDeleteShall we say Marcia the only reason he is still in Parliament, well apart from the fact that there are still the brain dead in his constituency that he would lose all the advantages by leaving now and he hasn't wasted all those years to go short now, or as the former speaker David Martin said I want what's due to me.
DeleteI'm not so sure 13 DAYS out of 4 YEARS in Westminster can really truly count towards still being in parliament myself!
DeleteLOL
DeleteMarcia: Not sure what the pension is but it is large, and there is a fund for running an office which we pay for.
I'm not sure why. After a;ll they don't give you or me a fund for running an office.
Apparently the large pension was given because it wasn't "seemly" for an ex-prime minister to retire to poverty.
Personally I don;t think it is "seemly" for anyone to live in poverty, but there you go, what do I matter?
I understand they also have a foundation, the main purpose of which seems to be to put Mr and Mrs Brown up in luxury as they travel the world, first class.
I'll dig around and see if i can find what his pension is.
That would be the *ahem* foundation Tris that has £3 million in the pot but less than £1 Million has actually been paid out to charities leaving just one itsy bitsy wee question...what has happened to the outstanding £2 Million?
DeleteExcept we could answer it.
DeleteIt is spent on first class flights and 5 or 6 star hotels all over the world, giving the Browns a billionaire lifestyle while he is supposed to be doing his job in Westminster.
Easy seen he has no farther to climb on the greasy pole.
The seat in the HoL is his when he wants it.
Highlights the utter ineptitude of the 'just say naw' campaign. Couldn't have done a better job showing up their half-baked scaremongering if I tried.
ReplyDeleteYes. Handsome job there... positive in every word....
DeleteIf it wasn't for the fact that this clown has buggered up any chance I have of a decent pension when I retire after working all my life (with the exception of 5 months during the nightmare Callaghan regime), I would almost feel sorry for the man. To be forced into such public humiliation time after time after time must be horrible, but then he thinks he's great, and probably hasn't noticed.
ReplyDeleteNo, not at all. He has a thick skin. It must rankle though having to work for the BT campaign run by his old enemy Darling Alistair.
DeleteHis ineptitude was in thinking that anyone short of the brain dead would listen to him. I worked in local government for many years in what would have been called the City Engineers when I was a lassie and became the highways followed by Transportation Department. Now I know a whole lot of people who benefited from the Pension Scheme and they were not all heads of department. Many were roadmen and the cleaners and people like me at the bottom of the pile in the office. Gordon Brown's robbery of the pension schemes affected us too, as our money is invested, but then Labour tend to think that pensions, private pensions are something that the Middle Classes have, specially in Scotland.
ReplyDeleteI understand that the changed he effected hit the poorest the hardest.
DeleteTypical of him.
Like his doubling of the lowest band of tax.
Oh that affected me as well, I was semi retired at that time, nice to see the tax contribution going up. So after 44 years in work and 7 retired I am still paying tax, if I saw it being used for something decent I would never complain but the tripe it is used on like Trident and those two Aircraft Carriers, my blood boils.
Delete