These young guys killed in Afghanistan in this endless and stupid war, and on a day I heard that a mate of mine from the gym will be going out there. And Cameron can only say that it's a "desperately sad day for Britain". I'd say to Mr Cameron: Enough, no more. Do something. Get them out before there are any more.
And, of course, there was the almost unbelievable news that to save a few miserable pounds this bunch of heartless, thoughtless, ......hatchet wielders, are going to close Remploy factories all over these islands depriving disabled people of jobs. This, juxtapositioned with the way that they are pushing sick and disabled people off Incapacity Benefit, is almost unbelieveable in its absurdity.
It can't have gone unnoticed that, by a strange co-incidence, these same ...erm people have decided that around 5 million middle class people should be spared income tax on their state retirement pensions, because it's a bit complex.
So I suppose the money for this had to come from somewhere. And why not the disabled? Easy target. Never mind that they are supposed to be hosting the Paralympics in London this year.
So, anyway, as I started to say, I've been so busy that I've not had time to write anything. But I did find this video on Youtube of my beloved Pet on French TV.
She'd agreed to do the show well in advance, and then she got this humdinger of a cold, but she turned up anyway, and after the host had explained to the audience just how sick she was, she went on ....having forgotten her mouchoires en papier...and sang...well more or less sang. What a trouper!
Au Secours... means HELP!
And for good measure 52 years later her new album includes this:
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/03/08/uk-pensions-qe-idUKBRE82700720120308?feedType=nl&feedName=ukmorningdigest
ReplyDeletePensions take another hit with QE sucking money out of Stock Exchange as pension funds scramble to plug gaps in Gov bond prices
Wolfie:
ReplyDeleteIt's a rotten situation that did no one except the banks any good.
It could have been used to stimulate the economy by building road and railways to give the country a second half 20th century infrastructure. This would have put it on an even basis with the rest of Europe for the future adn would ahve ecouraged further growth by providing hundreds of thousands with construction work, not to mention the spin offs with cars, clothes, entertainment, DIY etc...
But no, the two Tory parties decide to give the money to banks instead and they pay themselves bonuses that are repugnant to the rest of us and which get scant coverage for fear of causing more riots.
Pensions are now rubbish in Britain. The typical person has a pot of £26,000 after a life's work. This will now buy a pension of £2,000 pa. In final salary schemes the pension fund has to make up the difference, as the article says, stifling other investment in the company; in the more usual schemes where the person has to buy a pension, they just have to live on that.
If they have only their state pension and that £2,000, that will give them £7,500 a year to live on. They won't have to pay tax on that, but they will pay council tax of maybe £1,000. This condemns people to a life of grinding poverty in their old age (remembering that the sum at which you are deemed to be poor is at 2/3 of the average wage ie around £16,000. So less than half the poverty level. Bravo UK Government.)
So, I'm not against the middle class pension tax free zone. I just think that it is unfortunate that the government chose to announce the closing of protected employment for disabled people at the same time.
Neither this lot in London, nor the last seem to be aware of the consequences of what they do.
Niko ... the decline of the peoples party to the craven SNP reminds me of this song:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KODZtjOIPg&feature=BFa&list=LLGMcNrdkv_qVwVJpZyh_EgA&lf=mh_lolz
Mary Hopkins remains beautiful.
It's a shame for the English that they decided to become Tories too, Dean. What with the Liberals having jumped on the bandwagon....doesn't leave the English much to vote for except UKIP, EDF, BNP or Arthur Scargill's socialists. Not much choice there, is there?
ReplyDeletePetula Clark is much more beautiful than Mary Hopkins.