Osbornes budget

[Lateralthinking1]

Genuine Osborne and Little Wallpaper. What does it say to you?

http://www.inspiredinteriors.uk.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/IMAG0375.jpg

[french frank]

I feel rather sorry for FF, having to defend the indefensible. She's in rather a similar position supporting LibDem priciples as Scotty is on the question of God.

Very similar . Though I don't see it as defending anything; merely pointing out that some of the attacks are a bit off target!

[teamsaint]

Governments will lie, or distort statistics any way they can to get and do what they like.

The age statistics are no different.
I don't believe them . Cancer rates are sky rocketing. Obesity is apparently endemic. And our environment is increasingly toxic.

They tried a REALLY big lie when they tried to convince us all that a quarter of all newborns would live to 100, and for once, nobody believed them.

It's just another scare story. Pay people their hard earned pensions,(the audited accounts for public sectors are gormless george's little secret, and give the jobs to the kids, 25% of whom are out of work, and most of whom have little hope of buying a home.

[teamsaint]

interesting view in the FT on how private pensions are mostly a tax haven for the very rich, and how other benefits for the retired are at the expense of those of working age.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/d49cd624-7414-11e1-bcec-00144feab49a.html#axzz1psNppWAA

[John Skelton]

Well, that's the Dismal Science for you. It doesn't matter what you do, some expert will come along and say it's completely the wrong thing to do ...

That's because in this instance it is completely the wrong thing to do. And it's doing the wrong thing /s, as Wolf suggests, for reasons that have little to do with "the Dismal Science."

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

All pensions are in some sense 'unsustainable' because we're all living longer on average. There's plenty of evidence for that. That's why the pension age is having to rise. The financial implications of supporting a pensioner for 20 years (65 to 85, say) - or more - are significantly different from supporting a pensioner for 10 years (from 65 to 75). Actuarial calculations which once looked safe no longer are.

I'm sorry, but this is not true, even though Cameron keeps reiterating this. Lord Hutton, when serving a different master, changed the Teachers' Pension Scheme just 6 years ago, increasing the the employees' contributions, but not the employers' bit, in an agreemant that ensured the viability of the scheme for at least 30 more years, allowing for a further increase in life expectancy. Since then, all the evidence has pointed to the amount in the "pot" increasing. Part of the agreement was that the finding would be kept under review. The Con-Dems have refused to allow the legally binding review. If the Treasury didn't know that such a review would prove them utterly wrong, they would have come up with the figures before anyone could even hit the table.

[teamsaint]

given the labour front bench's refusal to support public sector workers' strikes to defend their pensions, I don't know why they don't join the coalition as well, and save all that nasty shouting and pointing in parliament.

[scottycelt]

I feel rather sorry for FF, having to defend the indefensible. She's in rather a similar position supporting LibDem priciples as Scotty is on the question of God.

In that case, Flossie, I'm already beginning to think that FF may well be on the side of the wholly defensible and righteous ... and why have you never expressed a similar sympathy for me?

[PhilipT]

Governments will lie, or distort statistics any way they can to get and do what they like.

The age statistics are no different.
I don't believe them . Cancer rates are sky rocketing. Obesity is apparently endemic. And our environment is increasingly toxic.

They tried a REALLY big lie when they tried to convince us all that a quarter of all newborns would live to 100, and for once, nobody believed them.

It's just another scare story. Pay people their hard earned pensions,(the audited accounts for public sectors are gormless george's little secret, and give the jobs to the kids, 25% of whom are out of work, and most of whom have little hope of buying a home.

Are you quite sure, teamsaint, that you're not become a little detached from reality? ".. our environment is increasingly toxic." Really? Despite such recent changes as the banning of smoking in public places, and of lead in petrol? "Cancer rates are sky rocketing". Be careful with this one - yes, the proportions of people who can expect to be diagnosed with cancer at some time in their lives, and to die from it, are increasing, but the population is ageing and cancer is primarily a disease of old age, a lot used to go undiagnosed (and much still does), and cancer is inherently a difficult disease to treat, so it's increasingly what's left as other diseases are beaten. ".. they tried to convince us all that a quarter of all newborns would live to 100 .." Who were 'they', I wonder.

Anyone who wants a gentle introduction to what the official statistics are really saying about life expectancy could do worse than start here.

[french frank]

That's because in this instance it is completely the wrong thing to do. And it's doing the wrong thing /s, as Wolf suggests, for reasons that have little to do with "the Dismal Science."

I'm not an economist, so I wouldn't know. But I do know that the two items of the budget which Wolf thinks the most appealing are two that I personally would oppose: the loosening of the rural planning laws and the expansion of airport capacity. (Still no tax on aviation fuel?)

[teamsaint]

[QUOTE=PhilipT;143508]Are you quite sure, teamsaint, that you're not become a little detached from reality? ".. our environment is increasingly toxic." Really? Despite such recent changes as the banning of smoking in public places, and of lead in petrol? "Cancer rates are sky rocketing". Be careful with this one - yes, the proportions of people who can expect to be diagnosed with cancer at some time in their lives, and to die from it, are increasing, but the population is ageing and cancer is primarily a disease of old age, a lot used to go undiagnosed (and much still does), and cancer in inherently a difficult disease to treat, so it's increasingly what's left as other diseases are beaten. ".. they tried to convince us all that a quarter of all newborns would live to 100 .." Who were 'they', I wonder.

Well i spent today driving round a major town , trying to find shops that weren't boarded up to sell them things. British, real things. Felt like reality to me.
Not fancy, not clever. But helping to keep 70 other people in a job.

They "They" that you ask about were the DWP ...

http://www.ipe.com/realestate/realestate/news/a-third-of-girls-born-in-2011-will-live-to-be-100-dwp_40247.php

all faithfully reported by the BBC as a lead headline before Christmas.
It is a LIE, designed to frighten us into reduced pensions, longer working lives.i mean seriously, would you really believe statistics from the DWP?How many people , even with todays medicine, actually reach 100? hardly none. I have never met one.

Yes , I do believe that our environment is increasingly toxic..........from fracking to mobile phones next to our ears, there is pollution everywhere.

[french frank]

How many people , even with todays medicine, actually reach 100? hardly none. I have never met one.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...ts-10-000.html

[teamsaint]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...ts-10-000.html

I rest my case. Even less than portsmouth get for a home game.

[Bryn]

Well, as I suspect may be true of others here, I miss out on the £10,500 tax allowance next year, in my case by a couple of weeks. I know full well that I will be losing out "in cash terms" as a result. There again, I have no intention whatever of giving up working for my living at least until such time as I fail my by then annual medical which allows me to renew my licence. I will, of course, be deferring my State Pension, as I have the one very small, though index linked, pension from a previous employment which I have not needed to trace. There is no doubt that the Coalition's Chancellor of the Exchequer, and the Prime Minister, lied when they stated that no Pensioner would lose out in cash terms. Many will, and many of those will not still be working. Shame on you frenchie for acting as apologist for the 'Sheriff of Nottingham' and his pals.

[vinteuil]

How many people , even with todays medicine, actually reach 100? hardly none. I have never met one.

.

There are 10,000 centenarians alive in the UK
This will increase to 500,000 by the middle of the century
There will be nearly a million by the end of 2100
Eight million people currently alive will reach 100
1.5 million of those are already over 65, and three million of those are currently under 16 years old
Source: Office for National Statistics