Best Of

Reading the judges comments, it sounds like he’s addressing a teenage orphan who has been in trouble for shoplifting

A JUDGE has sparked fury by wishing the 7/7 bombings mastermind “all the best” as he prepares to walk free.

Sir Robert Jay sympathised with al-Qaeda fiend Haroon Aswat, 50, who will be released from hospital to Yorkshire despite police fears he remains a threat.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/36609040/sir-robert-jay-judge-haroon-aswat-best-wishes/

I doubt I want this bastard out on the streets any more than you do. But once again it is an attack by far right figures Farage and Jenrick on the judiciary and individual judges. Surely there must be some sort of guidance he has to use. If there is a problem with this MF's release it is the Government's responsibility not that of the Judge who is following their rules.

Lots of scare stories in the media about possible tax rises on pensions but Philip Inman openly advocates it:

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/sep/06/rachel-reeves-50bn-problem-solved-stop-pension-tax-relief

The bigoted cretin thinks that ending the tax free lump sum on pensions will hit boomers when in reality it is the following generations who will suffer more.

It would also kill private pensions as nobody will ever save more into a pension beyond what is needed to get a matching employer contribution.

The thought of ordinary working class people having their own £500k personal pension pot really does seem to infuriate some leftists.

I love it - wealthier pensioners 'by virtue of having a pension'
Everyone should be in fucking abject poverty in retirement on the 2 and 6 from the govt

I have to declare several interests in this matter. Firstly, my personal pension funds are around £700k with my wife having a bit more, maybe another £50k.
Secondly, especially in recent years, that sum has been accumulated by the government paying 20% on to my contributions and, in addition, giving me tax relief of 20% in addition (the actually mechanics of this have moved from the Byzantine to the incomprehensible but the broad thrust remains the same). When I retire in a few years I am hoping to receive a significant tax free lump sum that can pay for some serious self indulgence on the part of both myself and my much more deserving spouse.

In short, my pension has accrued because of a scheme which could only reasonably be called fantastically generous. What is the public interest in this? Well, as I have been incentivised to save this way I will not be claiming any means related benefits as a pensioner. I have deferred expenditure which, along with other pension savers, has made funds available for investment, something this country sorely needs. If I had not had these incentives I might have made other choices. Or, of course, I might have thought I needed to save even more.

Taking a step back, pensions are a major benefit, costing well in excess of £50bn of foregone taxes a year, for the better off. Why should those on HRT get more tax relief than those on basic rate? Surely, if anything, it should be the other way around. Why should I get a serious chunk of deferred income, topped up with government funds, tax free when those with less income or a smaller pension pot get less? Again, should it not be the other way around?

What people like me have to face is should we be cutting welfare for the disabled, the sick and the genuinely incompetent or should the focus in fact be on people like me? Don't tell the wife I am even asking the question.

R4 WATO spent 5 minutes on the Jerusalem murders, another 5 on the death of Supertamp's Rick Davies and a 35 minute hatchet job on the Government. Now that is fair enough, but surely any pretence that the BBC are still impartial needs to be clarified. The BBC should, like the press media endorse a specific party so we the viewer and listener know where we are, be that Reform or the Conservatives. The Charter is no longer applied.

Supertramp came up with two 10/10 songs in 1979 imo: Breakfast In America and the Logical Song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQdoUUi3iJ8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kln_bIndDJg

Paul McCartney apparently said at the time that the Logical Song was the best song he'd heard in 10 years.

And freshly topical.

I said, now, watch what you say, they'll be calling you a radical
A liberal, oh, fanatical, criminal
Oh, won't you sign up your name? We'd like to feel you're acceptable
Respectable, oh, presentable, a vegetable..