Most liked posts in thread: Pensions

Funny talking about Unions, the wife did a training course last week as part of her union rep work. You have to have skin as thick as a rhino, dealing with managers with no idea how to manage and staff who are as thick as pig shit. Told her not to waste her time but she wouldn't listen.

 

Yup, it's often a thankless task.
When local authority mental health services were forcibly merged with the NHS back in the early noughties, I was tasked with representing the LA staff who were affected by the merger. From years of stewarding in the LA I was used to having frank, open and honest meetings with managers on a basis of mutual respect. You said what you thought and so did they. I soon found out that the attitude of most NHS managers was totally different. It was "We say jump; you say, how high?" They couldn't cope at all with being asked direct questions about why they were doing things certain ways and why they thought that everything should default to their way of doing things when this was supposed to be a merger rather than a takeover. It was bloody hard going.

 

Which only applies to molly coddled public sector though..

 

Would I be right in assuming that you aren't a Tory voter?

 

You are bang right there mate. Having said that, it is that "dog with a bone" description that would make him a good union rep. Management, in particular modern day management find it difficult dealing with people like that. A lot of modern day management have not come through the system but gone onto higher education up to graduate level. From a qualification point of view they degree educated but short on life experience and common sense.

 

think you have got lost

try this link

https://bantamtalk.com/index.php?forums/city-talk.2/

 

whereas other years they have had above inflation rises. They didn’t take a cut last year when loads of people were earning less due to furlough, which then caused the large increase this year to average wages

 

Depends how and what you compare. If you just come state pension to total pension income in other countries yes. But if you compare total average pension income then no.
But again if you are just comparing state pension income then our contributions are a lot less than everyone else

 

The big issue is that while your characterisation of the PM and a few other is absolutely bang on.

The problem is that all the political brains are all on one side of the house as Sunak is showing at the moment. Johnson is there for show and has his place is purely as a figurehead, the Labour party can't compete with his notoriety and his personality but they also can't compete with the meat put on the bones by the people under him. He gives the rhetoric, others give the substance and Labour can't compete on either.

In terms specifically of pensions - I hate the comparison with the other European countries as they're all misleading. They compare our base state pension with 'maximums' in other countries where people actually pay more into them. They're a complex comparison and there's no way to make it simple.

 

Oh I do miss Maggie

 

No point grafting hard with your hands, I do that and don't earn much. Got to work that grey matter.

 

Which is why it is an incentive to work to get away from the 'bottom'
Give folk a hand up by all means but not a wasteful handout...

 

If there is a way to end poverty, inequality and injustice humans certainly haven’t figured it out yet. It’s nonsense to think something like communism could be the answer, go ask all those who have suffered through communist regimes the past 100 years. Capitalism and fascism don’t fair better. I can’t see there ever being a time where everyone has plenty of food in the fridge and a nice car and home it’s a nice dream but that’s all it is.

In the words of ferris Bueller words that end in ism are usually bad, it would take some serious out of the box thinking to tackle and end those issues.

 

Give me some credit, I did know that. Mistakenly for some years I thought you could have a fair system that benefitted all but capitalism doesn't work like that. And yet saying that I'm not against people making money, but the stuff I see with the track and trace, the corruption within the public sector that's not right.

 

Most 'handouts' aren't wasteful though Tone. Just look at how much people benefitted from the £20 credit handouts. We then take that back off the poor and give mulit million pound contracts to companies who don't even have to justify it. The system is flawed.

 

I definitely didn't mean that in a patronising way so sorry if it came across like that. It kinda is the flaw though, but every system is flawed, there is no system in the world that eradicates the fact that some people will have more than others.

As for the wider points you raise I'm as skeptical as you about the £37Bn but even forgetting the tracing element what would be the "correct" amount to be spent on setting up a brand new testing infrastructure for £325 million tests?

The £20 UC is interesting as well because all the criticism actually does is stop governments giving out temporary increases in the future because the criticism of stopping it is more politically harmful than the boost in giving it in the first place.

 

I admit that there are injustices at both ends of the scale, some people DO need help but others also have to help themselves...

 

You and Tony both make valid points, if we want to know how the world works just see how much richer the wealthy have got through this pandemic. I just find it quite depressing how this has happened.

 

And I think this is fine but there's two further bits that I think has to stem from it.

1. If you create a company that is so useful to the world and is used so extensively that it is worth £1.7 Trillion Dollars, for example, do you not deserve the proportional fruits of that?
2. If the answer to that is 'no' then how do we actually fix that fairly? I'm not sure giving governments shares in Amazon every year is the answer.

People are getting richer basically because more people are buying their products but isn't that the actual fairest way for the system to work? If people don't like it then don't use their products or services.