Oh well its Friday tomorrow.....
Oder the wife got a letter today saying she cant retire until she is 66 now
dam government that's a jump of 3 years in the last few years
In reality there is no such thing now as retirement, you simply resign when the time is right and you can live off your state and company pension.
The fact that the state pension age has been raised is the real pisser, and that the working population cannot afford to keep the non working
population any longer, but no government is going to admit that......
Like many I've never had a penny in benefits, but any I was likely to get are being pulled further and further away.
quote:
when the time is right and you can live off your state and company pension.
I will reach my state pension age in 32 years 3 months and 28 days!! I will be 67 years 1 month and 1 day old......
Oh well its Friday tomorrow.....
There is a massive offloading of pension liability going on, everyone is effected by this unless your an MP or Euro MP.
Tax whatever they fancy, change legislation to the better of the treasury, and shaft the majority, while the great unwashed sit in the house smoking
tabs and applying to be on jeremy Kyle to annoy the working tax payers.
Bulk of taxpayers having their working life extended way beyond what anyone expected, paid less a pension, taxed more , while the fat bastards in pin
stripe suits continue living tax free, and wriggling their way out of any other liability.
Retirement between the age of 60 and 65 is perfectly reasonable, just because people are living longer isnt a reason to extend their working life.
quote:
Originally posted by T66
Retirement between the age of 60 and 65 is perfectly reasonable, just because people are living longer isnt a reason to extend their working life.
I was dead lucky with mine, had a final salary pension fund, and then got forcebly retired at 54, so far had 19 years on a full pension. Plus very
large golden handshake that payed off our mortgage. 
Ray
[Edited on 8-3-12 by Chippy]
I'll be very surprised if I live long enough to retire
quote:
Originally posted by Dangle_kt
quote:
Originally posted by T66
Retirement between the age of 60 and 65 is perfectly reasonable, just because people are living longer isnt a reason to extend their working life.
Check out the life expectancy shift in the UK over the last 50 years in the UK, and then do some research on the future analysis of it.
People living longer is the exact reason that I'll be working till the best part of 70.
Not that long ago you'd be lucky to get much more than 10 years beyond end of working life, now its closer to double that.
Combine that with the fact that there is a demographic "bubble" reaching an age when they will use more and more public resources than ever used before (healthcare - expensive drugs,equipment etc, social care, pension)
The maths isn't particularly hard to work out, or particularly well hidden- there isn't enough money.
There is a generation that has done pretty well out of a couple of booms, (some people more than others to be fair) - and their need is being levelled against smaller proportion than normal of working adults. Something has to give. If it wasn't for the fact that more old people than young people vote I imagine things would be a lot harsher on that age group.
quote:
Originally posted by T66
in the house smoking tabs and applying to be on jeremy Kyle to annoy the working tax payers.
quote:
Originally posted by James
quote:
Originally posted by T66
in the house smoking tabs and applying to be on jeremy Kyle to annoy the working tax payers.
We don't have TV here but was at Mum's today and had this on in the background there... not really seen it before, I was open mouthed!
I was stuck somewhere in between horror and rubber-necking a road accident!
I'm with Ninehigh, I doubt I'll make it to retirement, and the way things are looking being retired would kill me off if I did.
I personally do think it's fair to expect people to work longer if they're going to live longer. I don't particularly want to go to
work at all before anyone asks, I'll definitly be working at 70 though assuming I'm not dead or a lottory winner.
nonsense.. the people You voted for.. years ago even.. decided to use all those pension deductions as a 'general revenue' source rather than
inserting them into a dedicated sinking fund, as a reasonable man would. Now .. they realise that the $ incoming will not equal the $outgoing in
benefits.
Ergo cut the benefits or increase the age limits so few can claim them.
Vote for idiots.. perennially, continually demand more handouts from 'big brother' ..and suffer the consequences.
Sow and Reap kids.
[Edited on 9/3/12 by Bare]
Iirc I have never voted Labour, Tory or Lib Dem... Unfortunately it's still my problem.
I wonder if I could argue that I don't recognise this government as they don't represent me otherwise I'd have voted for them
quote:
Originally posted by Bare
Vote for idiots.. perennially, continually demand more handouts from 'big brother' ..and suffer the consequences.
Sow and Reap kids.
The damage to this country was done in the Thatcher and Major years. The politicians rubber stamped the decisions, but blame the unelected academic
dickhead 'advisors' who told them what to do. Like the brainless idiot who told them to sell off the utilities for less than the profit
they made in 5 years. Like the idiot who told them to shut down the railways, because buses would take the public anywhere and everywhere. Well, until
diesel runs out anyway.
Then there has to be top prize to the brainless clowns who told them to shut down all the manufacturing and heavy industry, because the UK was going
to be a country of 'service' industries. All those youngsters on the dole should be apprentices in some sort of manufacturing industry, so
that you can actually export something tangible, and instead of being paid dole, the youngsters would actually be paying tax, or at least not being
paid from the public purse. Service industries... what is the Uk going to do? Export McDonalds burgers?
When will common sense ever reign in a government? How can some ponsy 'Eton boy' ever know how real people live?
It should be mandatory for politicians to be time served tradesmen and engineers and nurses and...well, people who actually know life and how it
really is.
Meatloaf's new album is about going to hell in a handbasket. Couldn't be more true.
After all that,
Cheers,
Nev.
I really don't think forcing all MP's to have had jobs in specific sectors would help anything and I believe the two prime ministers you
specifically attacked did have propper jobs and neither of them went to eaton. Major is easilly the most 'normal' person to ever become PM
and Thatcher was a Chemist, at a level that would make her very simillar to an engineer. Major didn't even attend University and as far as I can
tell doesn't even have any A-Levels.
Basically what you said contradicts it's self.
I read that John Major didn't have a maths O level.. and for a time he was in charge of the country's money...
Neville for PM 
couldn't agree more!
With respect Morcus history does strange things to peoples perception of previous leaders......you are too young to have had to pay poll tax for
example - I was 18, tiny income and yet I had to pay as much as people earning 50 times my wage....tell me how the person who thought that up was in
touch with reality and the working population!? and then we get to selling everything off and dismantling Britains manufacturing industry so we can
all work in call centres etc........that's worked.......she was a grocers daughter yet it's far from impossible to establish a link from her
governments policies to the eradication of 90% of the countries independant grocers...... I could go on lol
[Edited on 9/3/12 by D Beddows]
True, but Nev still seems to be saying two things at once as the two people he singled out best meet his criteria for running the country of everyone who has already done so. You can't have a truely normal person as PM as you'd stop being normal as soon as you took office.
You don't want 'normal' people leading the country, we'd all be in trouble then......oh hang on........lol
I often wonder what would have happened if John Smith had been PM instead of Tony Blair, admitedly he probably wouldn't have won the election
Tony did but I do wonder sometimes when I watch the news ...........
Neville has hit the nail on the head for me....
However following on from the tory years, you have pretend working people called Labour MPs
Who have bankrupted the UK coffers, dont agree with all the Tory/Clogg cuts, but what alternative is there, we are seriously over spent.
The spending has to end somewhere, but instead of hitting only those who pay tax, I would be far happier seeing the long term dole fraternity being
given some work, or told to sling their hooks for benefits. Dont mix me up, I mean the ones taking the urine, not the genuine ones.
quote:
Originally posted by Neville Jones
The damage to this country was done in the Thatcher and Major years. The politicians rubber stamped the decisions, but blame the unelected academic dickhead 'advisors' who told them what to do. Like the brainless idiot who told them to sell off the utilities for less than the profit they made in 5 years. Like the idiot who told them to shut down the railways, because buses would take the public anywhere and everywhere. Well, until diesel runs out anyway.
Then there has to be top prize to the brainless clowns who told them to shut down all the manufacturing and heavy industry, because the UK was going to be a country of 'service' industries. All those youngsters on the dole should be apprentices in some sort of manufacturing industry, so that you can actually export something tangible, and instead of being paid dole, the youngsters would actually be paying tax, or at least not being paid from the public purse. Service industries... what is the Uk going to do? Export McDonalds burgers?
When will common sense ever reign in a government? How can some ponsy 'Eton boy' ever know how real people live?
It should be mandatory for politicians to be time served tradesmen and engineers and nurses and...well, people who actually know life and how it really is.
Meatloaf's new album is about going to hell in a handbasket. Couldn't be more true.
After all that,
Cheers,
Nev.
When I was much younger I used to work front of house at a Theatre and Conference Centre that held a few Labour and Lib Dem party conferences.........
politicians are on the whole very unpleasant people from my experience of them 'off camera' - long before Tony Blair was really important he
always had a huge scrum of security around him (and he looked straight through you when he was talking to you.....with those very scary
eyes......which are much scarier in person ), same for most of them tbh - John Smith, who was Labour leader at the time, on the other hand
obviously had loads of big blokes with him too BUT he spoke to you as though he'd just popped in to buy tickets for a show and came across as a
really decent guy. Sadly no one really remembers him now but I suspect his untimely death was probably a huge loss to the country 
Down to earth politicians are hard to come by sadly, one of my dads best mates is Tony Greaves (Baron Greaves Of Pendal to give him his full title
nowadays), a Lord but still one of the most down to earth men you could ever meet - when I was little he was just a local councillor in Colne but
he's spent his life genuinely trying help people. Even now he earns his living selling 2nd hand books (and I believe to this day can still be
found manning a book stall in the foyer of conference venues) rather than earning millions as an 'advisor' to some multinational. If only
there were more like him.....
On modern day MP's..
My nephew is aiming to be an MP, same as his workmates at Westminster. A very scary situation.
He got a Masters Degree in History, something to do with Romans and ancient parliament type things. Then he got a job(actually paid, as most of his
workmates in similar situation work 'for the experience'.) as a researcher and assistant for a conservative MP.
Next step is to be nominated and stand in an electorate where he has no chance, but gets the 'experience', whilst still keeping up his work
in Westminster.
Depending how many arses he licks, he may get a marginal seat to contest after the first. Third try he gets a definite Conservative electorate to get
voted into. This is how a great many of the present and future MP's come through the system.
All of this and he ends up an MP. A sort of apprenticeship.
Him, and his woolly headed mates end up running the country, and have never seen anything but a university, its bars, and the inside of Westminster!
Then they rely on similar background academics for advice on the stuff they've never experienced. He may have come from an ordinary family
background, been educated at a council high school, and may seen to have come from a simple background. But, I wouldn't trust him to go to
Sainsbury's to buy bread and ham for lunch, and come back with what he was sent for!
And people wonder why the country is going to hell in a hand basket?
Me, I've got two passports, and will be exercising my right to live elsewhere as soon as my sons have finished uni. Engineers and Physicists, at
least they can contribute something practical.
Cheers,
Nev.
I've found the key to this , only watch the news occasionally. Never the bbc.
Only do it once a day, and only watch the headlines.
I've become a bit of a Euronews convert, far less depressing.
Personally I would like to move to Spain , and grow potatoes.
The system would be better if you actually had to be from somewhere to stand for election for a long enough time that you couldn't do that sort
of thing. The one that really gets me is when you get two people who are married and both MP's.
Other news networks are far more fun in other languages, especially when you don't speak them.
Ok before you start saying we need to boost manufacturing you need to grasp the value chain.
Take an iphone. They cost about 400 quid. Of that 400 quid something like 40 quid or less is spent on actually making the product. The rest of the
money is 'services'. They range from the marketing and design through to the transport, storage and sales.
Now please, someone, anyone, tell me how here in the UK in one of the worlds most expensive countries with a minimum wage of around 6 or 7 pounds per
hour we can compete making something in the millions of units against somewhere in india / china?
The only thing we can manufacture is stuff that either is of high quality (that others don't have like germany does), is needed now (so needs to
be local), has to be inspected through creation due to its 'importance' (think military etc), or is done in such small quantity that others
don't want to know.
If you want a great example look for reman (i think) who had some inlet trumpt parts made in the far east for a lot less to excellent than he could
get in the uk (which now destroys the low quantity argument).
This country was skint with unions making mad demands when thatcher was in power. The country couldn't continue, thatcher took an approach that
go us out of the mire (i'm not saying it was the right approach but something had to change). The service industry has done this country very
well - the issue is I don't believe its a long term sustainable main industry for a country & we need jobs for people who aren't skilled
/ able to work in a service industry.
The country needs skilled jobs to be created, to try and halt the death of a lot of skilled occupations on the verge of disappearing.
When oil gets scarce, the costs of shipping will sky rocket, making imports uneconomical, and despite cheap overseas labour, manufacturing will be
forced back to local. Maybe not in my lifetime though.
Cheers,
Nev.
Just as a little diversion from the seriousness of the topics under discussion: In the life and pensions industry we used to say that an actuary was
someone that made accountants appear interestiing by comparison.
Ever thought of this-----When you're born, your life expectancy (UK male) is 79 years.
What happens at 79? Well, your life expectancy goes out to 89.
At 89 you've an expected 5 years to go, and even if you are 'lucky enough' to bat on 'til 110 years of age, you still have another
1.22 years life expectancy.
You get the picture, the figure for expectancy never gets to zero, therefore we should all 'live forever'. It's a type of
'Zeno's paradox,' which states "In a race, the quickest runner can never overtake the slowest, because the persuer must first
reach a point where the persued started, so that the slowest must always hold a lead." Or, the hare can never catch the tortoise.
On the subject of retirement, baby-boomers (born mid 1940s to early 60s) had an unprecedented opportunity to squirrel money away and see meteoric and
sustained growth, thus allowing many to retire early. Those born later (and particularly those born this century) face the prospect of being less
wealthy than their parents for the first time in modern history and growing up in an overpopulated and very dangerous world where working will be the
norm and retirement before 70 merely an aspiration.
Shame we can't have a whale of a time 'til age 30 and be state funded to do so, then work 'til we drop.
George Bernard Shaw was right, 'youth is wasted on the young.'
Bob.
This is why I wanna make my roadster before I leave uni, get an interest free loan to pay to build the only thing I've truly wanted to do all my
life, once it rolls out the garage I can die happy :p
Anything I do after that is just a bonus!