On the last point they have moved their conversation onto long covid. I don't see any mention of that in the bbc piece.
The point is children are at a low risk of covid so logic would conclude that the mantra of thousands of children suffering long covid is just not justified
I don't think that true. The ONS data does show long covid at its highest in 35-49 females, but significant rates in the teens:
I’m not seeing the 20 to 30% long Covid that Pagel thinks is the rate. This is an issue for sure, and we probably should get on with rolling out vaccines to the U 18s but I can see arguments for not doing so.
The figures are % of each total demographic I think, not % of people in that demographic who have had covid?
Pagel and co are talking about % of people who have had covid I think, although I still have no idea where they get 30% from.
Boris Johnson’s confidence that England can drop COVID restrictions on July 19 has raised many questions. We’ve tried to distil the questions and criticisms and the government’s defence.
Which is that while on the one hand it is just a sporting occasion, on another it is an opportunity where the hopes and dreams of a whole people come together – even for a moment.
We all focus on the same ball, we all focus on the same goal. There is nothing bad about this. It reminds us that there can be things that unite us and that they should survive off the pitch as well as on it.
Boris Johnson’s confidence that England can drop COVID restrictions on July 19 has raised many questions. We’ve tried to distil the questions and criticisms and the government’s defence.
The government’s opponents seem to think that mask-wearing will become illegal, and nightclub attendance mandatory, rather than people and companies being allowed to make judgements for themselves.
I’m sorry, but this really isn’t a difficult issue. No one is going to complain when they get a 2.5% increase.
Oh I highly doubt that. I didn't think people would complain about the WASPI stuff either but look how much traction that got. Unsuccessfully, yes, but this idea falls into the realm of something people will find a personal reason for objection even as the principal is accepted.
Which is that while on the one hand it is just a sporting occasion, on another it is an opportunity where the hopes and dreams of a whole people come together – even for a moment.
We all focus on the same ball, we all focus on the same goal. There is nothing bad about this. It reminds us that there can be things that unite us and that they should survive off the pitch as well as on it.
Which is that while on the one hand it is just a sporting occasion, on another it is an opportunity where the hopes and dreams of a whole people come together – even for a moment.
We all focus on the same ball, we all focus on the same goal. There is nothing bad about this. It reminds us that there can be things that unite us and that they should survive off the pitch as well as on it.
Boris Johnson’s confidence that England can drop COVID restrictions on July 19 has raised many questions. We’ve tried to distil the questions and criticisms and the government’s defence.
The government’s opponents seem to think that mask-wearing will become illegal, and nightclub attendance mandatory, rather than people and companies being allowed to make judgements for themselves.
Grant Shapps was (for once) completely clear on R4 - if train companies or airlines (as some have already) want to make mask wearing a condition of carriage they are entitled to do so.
It would help hugely if Johnson stopped splurging stupid amounts on vanity projects.
The royal yacht is an example of a f-ing stupid piece of uncosted vanity. We've been here with Johnson many times before: bendy buses, water canons, cable cars, HS2. And don't forget he wanted to build a brand new London airport in the Thames estuary.
He's a menace with money.
HS2 can't really be called a Johnson vanity project. It was first devised under a Labour government with Brown as PM; planning progressed under Cameron with a Conservative/Lib Dem coalition; advanced groundworks started under May; and the full works under Johnson. The full scheme will probably be completed in two or three PM's time.
And the airport in the Thames Estuary might actually be a good idea compared to the neverending Heathrow saga ...
Some people seem to instinctively hate infrastructure; any large project is expensive and often locally unpopular. Yet we'd have to think the state we'd be in if (say) the ecoloonies of the 1980s and 1990s at Newbury, Winchester etc had had their way with the motorway network in the 1960s. Or the railways in the 1830s to 1860s had been kyboshed by landed interests.
Infrastructure isn't just for next year; or the next thirty years. It is for a hundred years and more.
Bendy buses was a Livingstone project, I thought?
HS2 is sensible, and necessary. By Adonis, and I say it though I can't stand the man. Cable cars, water cannons - maybe. Though demonstrations continue to be too out of control.
Heathrow - fifty years later and it is still held up. Not really sure whether this is an issue; other EU countries, who we know are the advanced on the planet (cough) are building plenty of runways. Like HS2, the problem to building it is nimbies.
On the buses subject - the new RouteMaster buses that Johnson ordered as Mayor of London are still in service. The bendy buses that they replaced (which had problems fitting in the London street plan) were sold off - most are out of service now I believe.
One of the reasons that the new RouteMasters were ordered was to reduce the emissions in London - which were exceeding agreed limits in a number of areas.
Indeed. The bendy buses were completely impractical and someone trying to be too clever by half. Replacing them with cleaner, working alternatives was entirely reasonable.
Bendy buses only work if you allow people to get on and off at the rear exit. And that won't work where there is a culture of fare-dodging.
Wasn't there an issue with them at junctions and with cyclists too? Just going from memory but not sure if that was spin
I don't really hold a candle for bendy buses but it's perhaps worth noting that they are not uncommon in other countries, including some with a lot of cyclists. Perhaps those countries have better road infrastructure, though, or cyclists who are more used to them.
They work in countries where the cities have long, uninterrupted avenues, miles long, 100 yards wide.
London doesn't really have those.
In a couple of places they actually tried changing the road layout to decrease the sharpness of the turns, to help the bendy buses.
There is a reason that London in known for double decker buses. It is a design that works with the basic road layout.
The parade of weirdos, no marks and sociopaths that have been touted at various times is fascinating: McVey, Raab, Shapps, Ruth, Hancock…
I rate Raab. Am green on him for next Cons leader IIRC (along with, ahem, Hancock).
All these people have been voted in via a democratic process and, were they to become Cons leader, would have a democratic mandate to be so.
If this means that you decide to end your lifelong support of the Cons as a result then so be it.
You seem a bit hair triggery this fine morn..
LOL ah did it come over like that? Moi? Not meant to.
One of the reasons I felt uncomfortable at the wholesale condemnation of Trump was because tens of millions of Americans voted for him and to dismiss that out of hand struck me as (typically British) condescension. Same really for your list. Yep they are all better or worse to different degrees but people voted for them. And JRM for sure has come from a privileged position but Lisa Nandy hasn't. And both of them are MPs. As could you and I try to be if we wanted enough to be one.
But yes, I'll take a chill pill.
I’d like to believe in the holy communion of the voting booth, and may even manage it in my more optimistic moments, but voters and who they vote for are generally matters of subjective interpretation. On my own particular hobby horse, the 38% of Scots who voted for Brexit and the 20-25% who vote for the Tories have been given a deal more respect by HMG than the greater numbers who voted otherwise.
A depressing thought is that if Russia and China were suddenly granted free and fair elections by a good fairy, a majority of voters in both countries would still vote for Vlad and Xi.
On the last point they have moved their conversation onto long covid. I don't see any mention of that in the bbc piece.
The point is children are at a low risk of covid so logic would conclude that the mantra of thousands of children suffering long covid is just not justified
I don't think that true. The ONS data does show long covid at its highest in 35-49 females, but significant rates in the teens:
I’m not seeing the 20 to 30% long Covid that Pagel thinks is the rate. This is an issue for sure, and we probably should get on with rolling out vaccines to the U 18s but I can see arguments for not doing so.
The figures are % of each total demographic I think, not % of people in that demographic who have had covid?
Pagel and co are talking about % of people who have had covid I think, although I still have no idea where they get 30% from.
Anecdote:
Heard last night that a cousin and her husband, who were both double jabbed sometime ago, both got covid. Both suffered bad flu like symptoms. Both now well but are both suffering from breathlessness.
Must admit slightly dented my confidence as I have been pretty happy to go back to normal.
The England team, in common with other teams, have finely balanced athletes who for some reason discover patches of ice when they enter the penalty area. Should we blame the grounds men?
They're competing against the Azzurri - AKA The Royal Shakespeare Company.
The parade of weirdos, no marks and sociopaths that have been touted at various times is fascinating: McVey, Raab, Shapps, Ruth, Hancock…
I rate Raab. Am green on him for next Cons leader IIRC (along with, ahem, Hancock).
All these people have been voted in via a democratic process and, were they to become Cons leader, would have a democratic mandate to be so.
If this means that you decide to end your lifelong support of the Cons as a result then so be it.
You seem a bit hair triggery this fine morn..
LOL ah did it come over like that? Moi? Not meant to.
One of the reasons I felt uncomfortable at the wholesale condemnation of Trump was because tens of millions of Americans voted for him and to dismiss that out of hand struck me as (typically British) condescension. Same really for your list. Yep they are all better or worse to different degrees but people voted for them. And JRM for sure has come from a privileged position but Lisa Nandy hasn't. And both of them are MPs. As could you and I try to be if we wanted enough to be one.
But yes, I'll take a chill pill.
I’d like to believe in the holy communion of the voting booth, and may even manage it in my more optimistic moments, but voters and who they vote for are generally matters of subjective interpretation. On my own particular hobby horse, the 38% of Scots who voted for Brexit and the 20-25% who vote for the Tories have been given a deal more respect by HMG than the greater numbers who voted otherwise.
A depressing thought is that if Russia and China were suddenly granted free and fair elections by a good fairy, a majority of voters in both countries would still vote for Vlad and Xi.
Well we only have to look at the results of last night's survey to see that the electorate really is all over the shop and not to be trusted with anything. But yes, they are an electorate at least.
Perhaps I'm the only one, but I feel like 8% is a blessing to the Chancellor. It's so clearly unreflective of the reality for working people that it is easier to reject. Average earnings dipped last year, when pensioners were protected from the fall, and now appear to have grown, but as everyone knows, the country is not left 8% richer.
If it had been like 4.5%, that would I suggest have been arguable more difficult.
On the last point they have moved their conversation onto long covid. I don't see any mention of that in the bbc piece.
The point is children are at a low risk of covid so logic would conclude that the mantra of thousands of children suffering long covid is just not justified
I don't think that true. The ONS data does show long covid at its highest in 35-49 females, but significant rates in the teens:
I’m not seeing the 20 to 30% long Covid that Pagel thinks is the rate. This is an issue for sure, and we probably should get on with rolling out vaccines to the U 18s but I can see arguments for not doing so.
The figures are % of each total demographic I think, not % of people in that demographic who have had covid?
Pagel and co are talking about % of people who have had covid I think, although I still have no idea where they get 30% from.
Anecdote:
Heard last night that a cousin and her husband, who were both double jabbed sometime ago, both got covid. Both suffered bad flu like symptoms. Both now well but are both suffering from breathlessness.
Must admit slightly dented my confidence as I have been pretty happy to go back to normal.
I think a lot of people have the wrong expectations from the vaccines - it won't stop you getting Covid, it just makes the consequences of catching Covid far less severe. So you end up in just bed for a few days rather than hospital or you get a cold rather than ending up in bed.
Perhaps I'm the only one, but I feel like 8% is a blessing to the Chancellor. It's so clearly unreflective of the reality for working people that it is easier to reject. Average earnings dipped last year, when pensioners were protected from the fall, and now appear to have grown, but as everyone knows, the country is not left 8% richer.
If it had been like 4.5%, that would I suggest have been arguable more difficult.
You aren't the only one - the fact it's so large means that not rejecting it will open Sunak up to longer term criticism especially if he removes the UC £20...
French presidential election, last matched prices at Betfair for possibles with back price > 70% * lay price:
Macron 1.9 Le Pen 5.7 Bertrand 7.2 Zemmour 30 Melenchon 36 Philippe 55 Barnier 60 Hidalgo 85
Hildalgo may come in a bit, given that mayor of Paris is a very visible position. Zemmour will probably back whoever is most right-wing in the second round. Gotta wonder whether Le Pen will stay the course, but there's a long way to go.
The full state pension is £10,192.56 a year: well below the minimum and living wages. Thanks to the triple lock over the past decade, it is about £10 higher than it would otherwise be. Not a lot. The idea that pensioners' mouths have been stuffed with gold, or that the triple lock is ruinously expensive, is absurd. And remember many women will be getting less than even that (the so-called WASPI women case).
In any case, maintaining the triple lock was in the manifesto. So was the .7% aid budget of course.
Where the state pension might seem generous is in topping up high personal pensions. Means testing might be an option here, phasing out the state pension at high income levels but it would need to be very high else people will game the system. There are already problems with doctors at the top end of contribution limits.
Boris Johnson’s confidence that England can drop COVID restrictions on July 19 has raised many questions. We’ve tried to distil the questions and criticisms and the government’s defence.
The government’s opponents seem to think that mask-wearing will become illegal, and nightclub attendance mandatory, rather than people and companies being allowed to make judgements for themselves.
What we aren't being forced into nightclubs? I'm disappointed. I haven't been to one for decades.
I have to say I do have rather contradictory thoughts about this stuff. It seems to make sense to wear a mask on a packed tube train, but would be bonkers to expect people to wear masks in a packed nighclub, but the latter I presume would be much worse for infection. I guess it is down to the level of inconvenience vs risk.
I think a packed train is the only place I will voluntarily wear a mask.
On the last point they have moved their conversation onto long covid. I don't see any mention of that in the bbc piece.
The point is children are at a low risk of covid so logic would conclude that the mantra of thousands of children suffering long covid is just not justified
I don't think that true. The ONS data does show long covid at its highest in 35-49 females, but significant rates in the teens:
I’m not seeing the 20 to 30% long Covid that Pagel thinks is the rate. This is an issue for sure, and we probably should get on with rolling out vaccines to the U 18s but I can see arguments for not doing so.
The figures are % of each total demographic I think, not % of people in that demographic who have had covid?
Pagel and co are talking about % of people who have had covid I think, although I still have no idea where they get 30% from.
Anecdote:
Heard last night that a cousin and her husband, who were both double jabbed sometime ago, both got covid. Both suffered bad flu like symptoms. Both now well but are both suffering from breathlessness.
Must admit slightly dented my confidence as I have been pretty happy to go back to normal.
I think a lot of people have the wrong expectations from the vaccines - it won't stop you getting Covid, it just makes the consequences of catching Covid far less severe. So you end up in just bed for a few days rather than hospital or you get a cold rather than ending up in bed.
I think that was my main concern. Not that they got it, but appear to be suffering as a consequence. They are struggling to walk any distance. And it is both of them and they are husband and wife so not genetically linkded in anyway.
The full state pension is £10,192.56 a year: well below the minimum and living wages. Thanks to the triple lock over the past decade, it is about £10 higher than it would otherwise be. Not a lot. The idea that pensioners' mouths have been stuffed with gold, or that the triple lock is ruinously expensive, is absurd. And remember many women will be getting less than even that (the so-called WASPI women case).
In any case, maintaining the triple lock was in the manifesto. So was the .7% aid budget of course.
Where the state pension might seem generous is in topping up high personal pensions. Means testing might be an option here, phasing out the state pension at high income levels but it would need to be very high else people will game the system. There are already problems with doctors at the top end of contribution limits.
WASPI women aren't getting less than that, they're just not getting their pension five years before their male counterparts anymore.
On the last point they have moved their conversation onto long covid. I don't see any mention of that in the bbc piece.
The point is children are at a low risk of covid so logic would conclude that the mantra of thousands of children suffering long covid is just not justified
I don't think that true. The ONS data does show long covid at its highest in 35-49 females, but significant rates in the teens:
I’m not seeing the 20 to 30% long Covid that Pagel thinks is the rate. This is an issue for sure, and we probably should get on with rolling out vaccines to the U 18s but I can see arguments for not doing so.
The figures are % of each total demographic I think, not % of people in that demographic who have had covid?
Pagel and co are talking about % of people who have had covid I think, although I still have no idea where they get 30% from.
Anecdote:
Heard last night that a cousin and her husband, who were both double jabbed sometime ago, both got covid. Both suffered bad flu like symptoms. Both now well but are both suffering from breathlessness.
Must admit slightly dented my confidence as I have been pretty happy to go back to normal.
I think a lot of people have the wrong expectations from the vaccines - it won't stop you getting Covid, it just makes the consequences of catching Covid far less severe. So you end up in just bed for a few days rather than hospital or you get a cold rather than ending up in bed.
Yes. We have to resign ourselves to catching it, sooner or later, unfortunately. If double jabbed you'll be very unlucky if you get seriously ill, but we're all going to get it. It's not going away.
On the last point they have moved their conversation onto long covid. I don't see any mention of that in the bbc piece.
The point is children are at a low risk of covid so logic would conclude that the mantra of thousands of children suffering long covid is just not justified
I don't think that true. The ONS data does show long covid at its highest in 35-49 females, but significant rates in the teens:
I’m not seeing the 20 to 30% long Covid that Pagel thinks is the rate. This is an issue for sure, and we probably should get on with rolling out vaccines to the U 18s but I can see arguments for not doing so.
The figures are % of each total demographic I think, not % of people in that demographic who have had covid?
Pagel and co are talking about % of people who have had covid I think, although I still have no idea where they get 30% from.
Anecdote:
Heard last night that a cousin and her husband, who were both double jabbed sometime ago, both got covid. Both suffered bad flu like symptoms. Both now well but are both suffering from breathlessness.
Must admit slightly dented my confidence as I have been pretty happy to go back to normal.
I think a lot of people have the wrong expectations from the vaccines - it won't stop you getting Covid, it just makes the consequences of catching Covid far less severe. So you end up in just bed for a few days rather than hospital or you get a cold rather than ending up in bed.
No. My understanding is vaccine can stop you getting covid at all.
"With the Pfizer-BioNTech, estimates of effectiveness against infection range from around 55 to 70%, with the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine they range from around 60 to 70%"
Some reports that Johnson may declare 19th July a national holiday.
I've got appointment made with clients in Northern Ireland that week. I have the flights, the car and the hotel pre-booked for four days for both myself and my business partner. We can't afford to waste a quarter of my pre-paid time dicking about doing nothing for the day. Haven't we had enough holidays? He can f*** right off at such short notice!
Sunak should be bold, not only should be get rid of the triple lock he should introduce things like NI for (working) pensioners.
He should just get rid of the waste of space that is NI
A former Chancellor once said that is the policy goal of every Chancellor, sadly it can only be introduced with a government with a majority of 400 and in year one of a ten year term.
Full abolition might be complicated by Employer NI rates, he thinks clever people would move plenty of their salary as benefits where the NI rate is what just under 14%?
Sunak should be bold, not only should be get rid of the triple lock he should introduce things like NI for (working) pensioners.
NI on pension income too as well please. The old farts use healthcare services the most and pay in the least despite many having huge incomes. Working people mustn't shoulder the burden of social care. Javid is a fool if he thinks people will vote Tory for a tax rise to fund social care. The oldies need to pay.
Boris Johnson’s confidence that England can drop COVID restrictions on July 19 has raised many questions. We’ve tried to distil the questions and criticisms and the government’s defence.
The government’s opponents seem to think that mask-wearing will become illegal, and nightclub attendance mandatory, rather than people and companies being allowed to make judgements for themselves.
What we aren't being forced into nightclubs? I'm disappointed. I haven't been to one for decades.
I have to say I do have rather contradictory thoughts about this stuff. It seems to make sense to wear a mask on a packed tube train, but would be bonkers to expect people to wear masks in a packed nighclub, but the latter I presume would be much worse for infection. I guess it is down to the level of inconvenience vs risk.
I think a packed train is the only place I will voluntarily wear a mask.
On public transport yesterday I would say 80% passenger mask wearing compliance. 60% TfL direct employee mask wearing compliance. 0% TfL contractor (the ones with the fluorescent kit) mask wearing compliance.
Damned clever the virus to know to leave certain contractors alone.
The parade of weirdos, no marks and sociopaths that have been touted at various times is fascinating: McVey, Raab, Shapps, Ruth, Hancock…
I rate Raab. Am green on him for next Cons leader IIRC (along with, ahem, Hancock).
All these people have been voted in via a democratic process and, were they to become Cons leader, would have a democratic mandate to be so.
If this means that you decide to end your lifelong support of the Cons as a result then so be it.
You seem a bit hair triggery this fine morn..
LOL ah did it come over like that? Moi? Not meant to.
One of the reasons I felt uncomfortable at the wholesale condemnation of Trump was because tens of millions of Americans voted for him and to dismiss that out of hand struck me as (typically British) condescension. Same really for your list. Yep they are all better or worse to different degrees but people voted for them. And JRM for sure has come from a privileged position but Lisa Nandy hasn't. And both of them are MPs. As could you and I try to be if we wanted enough to be one.
But yes, I'll take a chill pill.
I’d like to believe in the holy communion of the voting booth, and may even manage it in my more optimistic moments, but voters and who they vote for are generally matters of subjective interpretation. On my own particular hobby horse, the 38% of Scots who voted for Brexit and the 20-25% who vote for the Tories have been given a deal more respect by HMG than the greater numbers who voted otherwise.
A depressing thought is that if Russia and China were suddenly granted free and fair elections by a good fairy, a majority of voters in both countries would still vote for Vlad and Xi.
Probably, though of course since they dont risk a fair fight their probable wins cannot go in the win column for them. Indeed, it makes their not permitting it more irrational and terrible since it might be unnecessary. But it's true people like authoritarians if they and the country look strong.
Sellout 50k crowd for the next three days - sadly not including me, who had tickets for last year’s cancelled event (and the Grand Prix next weekend), and had to send them back
Sunak should be bold, not only should be get rid of the triple lock he should introduce things like NI for (working) pensioners.
NI for working pensioners isn't a problem - except you would need a means of confirming that the income isn't from a pension.
And @DecrepiterJohnL its better to avoid admin costs when it comes to benefits but I don't think that is actually true with pensioners as I suspect there would be few savings available due to all the other ways in which pensioners qualify for a few pounds.
The full state pension is £10,192.56 a year: well below the minimum and living wages. Thanks to the triple lock over the past decade, it is about £10 higher than it would otherwise be. Not a lot. The idea that pensioners' mouths have been stuffed with gold, or that the triple lock is ruinously expensive, is absurd. And remember many women will be getting less than even that (the so-called WASPI women case).
In any case, maintaining the triple lock was in the manifesto. So was the .7% aid budget of course.
Where the state pension might seem generous is in topping up high personal pensions. Means testing might be an option here, phasing out the state pension at high income levels but it would need to be very high else people will game the system. There are already problems with doctors at the top end of contribution limits.
WASPI women aren't getting less than that, they're just not getting their pension five years before their male counterparts anymore.
As it should be to. The issue really was the tapering which was just too rapid, otherwise alignment was the correct thing to do. Not helped by aligning at the same time as increasing the retirement age making the tapering even harsher.
I have a beef personally (although I suspect I wont get much sympathy from the WASPI ladies) in that I lost a years pension by being born a few weeks late.
The tapering could have been better, but otherwise the decisions to align and delay pensions to an older age are correct.
The England team, in common with other teams, have finely balanced athletes who for some reason discover patches of ice when they enter the penalty area. Should we blame the grounds men?
They're competing against the Azzurri - AKA The Royal Shakespeare Company.
But being coached by one of the best in the business... Tom Daley.
On the last point they have moved their conversation onto long covid. I don't see any mention of that in the bbc piece.
The point is children are at a low risk of covid so logic would conclude that the mantra of thousands of children suffering long covid is just not justified
I don't think that true. The ONS data does show long covid at its highest in 35-49 females, but significant rates in the teens:
I’m not seeing the 20 to 30% long Covid that Pagel thinks is the rate. This is an issue for sure, and we probably should get on with rolling out vaccines to the U 18s but I can see arguments for not doing so.
The figures are % of each total demographic I think, not % of people in that demographic who have had covid?
Pagel and co are talking about % of people who have had covid I think, although I still have no idea where they get 30% from.
Anecdote:
Heard last night that a cousin and her husband, who were both double jabbed sometime ago, both got covid. Both suffered bad flu like symptoms. Both now well but are both suffering from breathlessness.
Must admit slightly dented my confidence as I have been pretty happy to go back to normal.
I think a lot of people have the wrong expectations from the vaccines - it won't stop you getting Covid, it just makes the consequences of catching Covid far less severe. So you end up in just bed for a few days rather than hospital or you get a cold rather than ending up in bed.
No. My understanding is vaccine can stop you getting covid at all.
"With the Pfizer-BioNTech, estimates of effectiveness against infection range from around 55 to 70%, with the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine they range from around 60 to 70%"
PHE report
Can, but it probably won't. It is much more likely to lessen symptoms.
Sunak should be bold, not only should be get rid of the triple lock he should introduce things like NI for (working) pensioners.
He should just get rid of the waste of space that is NI
A former Chancellor once said that is the policy goal of every Chancellor, sadly it can only be introduced with a government with a majority of 400 and in year one of a ten year term.
Full abolition might be complicated by Employer NI rates, he thinks clever people would move plenty of their salary as benefits where the NI rate is what just under 14%?
There are very few things you can claim via salary sacrifice nowadays - literally the only worthwhile options are pensions and electric cars.
But the increase of Employer NI over the years has made combining Income tax and National insurance an impossible task.
On the last point they have moved their conversation onto long covid. I don't see any mention of that in the bbc piece.
The point is children are at a low risk of covid so logic would conclude that the mantra of thousands of children suffering long covid is just not justified
I don't think that true. The ONS data does show long covid at its highest in 35-49 females, but significant rates in the teens:
I’m not seeing the 20 to 30% long Covid that Pagel thinks is the rate. This is an issue for sure, and we probably should get on with rolling out vaccines to the U 18s but I can see arguments for not doing so.
The figures are % of each total demographic I think, not % of people in that demographic who have had covid?
Pagel and co are talking about % of people who have had covid I think, although I still have no idea where they get 30% from.
Anecdote:
Heard last night that a cousin and her husband, who were both double jabbed sometime ago, both got covid. Both suffered bad flu like symptoms. Both now well but are both suffering from breathlessness.
Must admit slightly dented my confidence as I have been pretty happy to go back to normal.
I think a lot of people have the wrong expectations from the vaccines - it won't stop you getting Covid, it just makes the consequences of catching Covid far less severe. So you end up in just bed for a few days rather than hospital or you get a cold rather than ending up in bed.
No. My understanding is vaccine can stop you getting covid at all.
"With the Pfizer-BioNTech, estimates of effectiveness against infection range from around 55 to 70%, with the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine they range from around 60 to 70%"
PHE report
I think that is right and with fairly modest care in crowded places indoors should be easy to avoid completely for many. In Spain the current wave is growing very fast among the 16-30 age group - especially in the north. Here in Andalucia it is very high in the Malaga/Seville provinces - much less so elsewhere. My own area has seen a stall in case rises so far this week - a welcome surprise.
I think the full state pension is £9.3k and the average annuity on a private pension about £3k, so that gets you to about £12.5k - or over £1,000 per month.
When you bear in mind that pensioners won't pay NI or income tax on that, get OAP discounts in most places, get free buses, a winter fuel allowance, and get a free TV licence, then it allows for a decent basic retirement. Particularly if you've paid off the mortgage.
You might want to have a much more luxurious retirement than that, but should it be the duty of the State to pay for it?
IMHO, there are far greater calls on the public purse - particularly for those of working age.
The parade of weirdos, no marks and sociopaths that have been touted at various times is fascinating: McVey, Raab, Shapps, Ruth, Hancock…
I rate Raab. Am green on him for next Cons leader IIRC (along with, ahem, Hancock).
All these people have been voted in via a democratic process and, were they to become Cons leader, would have a democratic mandate to be so.
If this means that you decide to end your lifelong support of the Cons as a result then so be it.
I had thought Raab a bit of a dud but he seems to be getting quite favourable press these days. Maybe growing into the role.
Don't shout me down, but I get the impression that Boris's cabinet is beginning to show signs of being inhabited by quite distinctive politicians in their own right. Whatever you think of them individually, Sunak, Patel, Javid, Gove, Truss make for a colourful and eclectic team, far removed from some of their "battleship grey" predecessors. If Boris promotes Penny Mordaunt to a more prominent position that impression would be underlined further.
I think the full state pension is £9.3k and the average annuity on a private pension about £3k, so that gets you to about £12.5k - or over £1,000 per month.
When you bear in mind that pensioners won't pay NI or income tax on that, get OAP discounts in most places, get free buses, a winter fuel allowance, and get a free TV licence, then it allows for a decent basic retirement. Particularly if you've paid off the mortgage.
You might want to have a much more luxurious retirement than that, but should it be the duty of the State to pay for it?
IMHO, there are far greater calls on the public purse - particularly for those of working age.
Hasn't that free TV license gone?
But yep once the mortgage is paid off there is plenty of money around for other things.
On the last point they have moved their conversation onto long covid. I don't see any mention of that in the bbc piece.
The point is children are at a low risk of covid so logic would conclude that the mantra of thousands of children suffering long covid is just not justified
I don't think that true. The ONS data does show long covid at its highest in 35-49 females, but significant rates in the teens:
I’m not seeing the 20 to 30% long Covid that Pagel thinks is the rate. This is an issue for sure, and we probably should get on with rolling out vaccines to the U 18s but I can see arguments for not doing so.
The figures are % of each total demographic I think, not % of people in that demographic who have had covid?
Pagel and co are talking about % of people who have had covid I think, although I still have no idea where they get 30% from.
Anecdote:
Heard last night that a cousin and her husband, who were both double jabbed sometime ago, both got covid. Both suffered bad flu like symptoms. Both now well but are both suffering from breathlessness.
Must admit slightly dented my confidence as I have been pretty happy to go back to normal.
I think a lot of people have the wrong expectations from the vaccines - it won't stop you getting Covid, it just makes the consequences of catching Covid far less severe. So you end up in just bed for a few days rather than hospital or you get a cold rather than ending up in bed.
No. My understanding is vaccine can stop you getting covid at all.
"With the Pfizer-BioNTech, estimates of effectiveness against infection range from around 55 to 70%, with the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine they range from around 60 to 70%"
PHE report
Can, but it probably won't. It is much more likely to lessen symptoms.
Surely ‘probably will’ as protection is over 50 % for both vaccines?
Earlier on in the pandemic was probably the only time there might have been popular and political support for some radical measures to bring in more cash, even if implementing during the worst times was a no no.
Now it will never be the right time, it hits the vulnerable etc etc and the memory of the bad pandemic times will fade, along with any support for ways to fill the coffers, beyond theoretical support.
I think my immune system is feeling the effects of a lack of proper workout over the last 18 months. It's been sitting around a bit bored and getting twitchy. Well, the devil makes work for idle hands so it's decided to give me the worst hayfever I can remember since my early 20s. So bad I started wondering if it was Covid (but several lateral flow tests tell me not).
What with not eating out so much, not travelling abroad and therefore missing out on the marvellous microbiological diversity of this planet and the soiled hands of other people cooking my dinner I do think the old immune cells have had too much time on their hands.
The parade of weirdos, no marks and sociopaths that have been touted at various times is fascinating: McVey, Raab, Shapps, Ruth, Hancock…
I rate Raab. Am green on him for next Cons leader IIRC (along with, ahem, Hancock).
All these people have been voted in via a democratic process and, were they to become Cons leader, would have a democratic mandate to be so.
If this means that you decide to end your lifelong support of the Cons as a result then so be it.
I had thought Raab a bit of a dud but he seems to be getting quite favourable press these days. Maybe growing into the role.
Don't shout me down, but I get the impression that Boris's cabinet is beginning to show signs of being inhabited by quite distinctive politicians in their own right. Whatever you think of them individually, Sunak, Patel, Javid, Gove, Truss make for a colourful and eclectic team, far removed from some of their "battleship grey" predecessors. If Boris promotes Penny Mordaunt to a more prominent position that impression would be underlined further.
I thought Raab was excellent during the period when the pm was in hospital last year.
I think the full state pension is £9.3k and the average annuity on a private pension about £3k, so that gets you to about £12.5k - or over £1,000 per month.
When you bear in mind that pensioners won't pay NI or income tax on that, get OAP discounts in most places, get free buses, a winter fuel allowance, and get a free TV licence, then it allows for a decent basic retirement. Particularly if you've paid off the mortgage.
You might want to have a much more luxurious retirement than that, but should it be the duty of the State to pay for it?
IMHO, there are far greater calls on the public purse - particularly for those of working age.
I don't understand why we still see so many pensioner discounts.
They were perhaps reasonable when there pensioners were fewer and poorer but why should they for example get into sports matches for less than a debt laden under 30.
Some reports that Johnson may declare 19th July a national holiday.
I've got appointment made with clients in Northern Ireland that week. I have the flights, the car and the hotel pre-booked for four days for both myself and my business partner. We can't afford to waste a quarter of my pre-paid time dicking about doing nothing for the day. Haven't we had enough holidays? He can f*** right off at such short notice!
Yes, I agree. I wonder about the public impact. Nearly everyone likes a day off in principle but this is such an obvious bread-and-circuses move for popularity that many of us will be frankly scornful. But politicians do bread and circuses things for a reason, and maybe it'll genuinely help his popularity? The impact on the economy will be limited as most people can either ignore it as you plan to do or catch up in the following days - the exception is physical work like building where there will be a genuine 1-day delay.
On topic, I'm a beneficiary, but trying to be unbiased. The 9% jump is not really a random artifact, because the implication of the policy is that we missed out on normal earnings growth last year. But the whole triple lock is an outrage when so many people are struggling, so I'd go along with Sunak scrapping it, while making sardonic remarks about Tory promises only being worthwhile when it suits them.
I have £30 in free bets from coral. Or rather £5 x 6 free bets, not sure you can aggregate.
How can I most profitably use these on the footie? Can I not guarantee a profit by backing both sides to win, both to score the first goal, etc?
Usually they have a lot of rules on what you can do with free bets. Not allowed to be odds-on, not allowed to back more than 50% of the runners, they don’t return your stake only the profit etc. Read the Ts and Cs carefully, or they’ll just void your bets!
I’d back Italy to win, they’ll you’ll either be happy or up. I lost £50 on Denmark the other night and it was brilliant!
Sunak should be bold, not only should be get rid of the triple lock he should introduce things like NI for (working) pensioners.
NI on pension income too as well please. The old farts use healthcare services the most and pay in the least despite many having huge incomes. Working people mustn't shoulder the burden of social care. Javid is a fool if he thinks people will vote Tory for a tax rise to fund social care. The oldies need to pay.
Be careful what you wish for.
NI on pension income will likely be introduced only on future pension income with current pensioners being ringfenced.
The England team, in common with other teams, have finely balanced athletes who for some reason discover patches of ice when they enter the penalty area. Should we blame the grounds men?
They're competing against the Azzurri - AKA The Royal Shakespeare Company.
But being coached by one of the best in the business... Tom Daley.
Football is a very simple game ... run into the box and fall over. Fry & Laurie's football coach sketch. https://youtu.be/__G4RrlGmVk?t=71s
Sunak should be bold, not only should be get rid of the triple lock he should introduce things like NI for (working) pensioners.
He should just get rid of the waste of space that is NI
A former Chancellor once said that is the policy goal of every Chancellor, sadly it can only be introduced with a government with a majority of 400 and in year one of a ten year term.
Full abolition might be complicated by Employer NI rates, he thinks clever people would move plenty of their salary as benefits where the NI rate is what just under 14%?
There are very few things you can claim via salary sacrifice nowadays - literally the only worthwhile options are pensions and electric cars.
But the increase of Employer NI over the years has made combining Income tax and National insurance an impossible task.
But it's also exactly why it should be done. Having a jobs tax like that is completely counterproductive. It also means whole segments of the economy find a mammoth incentive for employer and employee to mutually agree to underreporting of wages.
Not something I've ever engaged in but I know many people who made no secret of the fact that their wages were eg £100 a week cash in hand better than what was reported on their payslip. Employer dodges NI, Employee dodges NI and IC and keeps UC. Everyone's a winner except honest employers competing and honest taxpayers.
I have £30 in free bets from coral. Or rather £5 x 6 free bets, not sure you can aggregate.
How can I most profitably use these on the footie? Can I not guarantee a profit by backing both sides to win, both to score the first goal, etc?
You can, particularly if you match it with your own money, but you will realise that the whole operation will put you up about £5 at most.
If you are prepared to do a bit more work, see if any of the bookmakers' odds are misaligned with Betfair, if you have an account. Use your free bet at the bookie, and your own money on the opposite bet at Betfair, safe in the knowledge that if you lose the free bet will cover it (and hopefully slightly more).
Or, alternatively, you may find it is more fun, rather than levelling out the two outcomes, to leave the potential profit on the outsider.
So rather than be guaranteed to win £1 either way, be guaranteed £0 on one outcome and say £5 on the other, or more, depending on the bet. Potentially a bit more fun.
An 8% rise for the OAPs and a 1% rise for the NHS staff will look odd. Especially if the NHS have been keeping the old gits alive.
It won't happen.
The only saving grace is that the low-hanging fruit have become the excess deaths of 2020. A lower pension bill than it would have been otherwise.
PS I'm 71 and I've still got my own teeth.
And neither yourself or the rest of us pensioners are 'old gits' but much loved parents and grandparents
You can be both of course.
I would agree but hopefully the majority are not
One of my favourite poems is "Warning" by Jenny Joseph
When I am an old woman I shall wear purple With a red hat which doesn’t go, and doesn’t suit me. And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves And satin sandals, and say we’ve no money for butter. I shall sit down on the pavement when I’m tired And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells And run my stick along the public railings And make up for the sobriety of my youth. I shall go out in my slippers in the rain And pick flowers in other people’s gardens And learn to spit.
You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat And eat three pounds of sausages at a go Or only bread and pickle for a week And hoard pens and pencils and beermats and things in boxes.
But now we must have clothes that keep us dry And pay our rent and not swear in the street And set a good example for the children. We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.
But maybe I ought to practise a little now? So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.
Sunak should be bold, not only should be get rid of the triple lock he should introduce things like NI for (working) pensioners.
I am less than a decade away from the state pension, that and my relatively pathetic private pension won't cut the mustard so I will remain scratching around to make a living until I drop. And you want to tax me more!
The people who should have been taxed are the current and recently departed pensioners who enjoyed tax free jam and cream final salary pensions and triple locks, and you want me to cough up NI.
Currently home owning, BMW driving, 'I done good' Boris voters of my generation are going to get a big shock when they arrive at the day they draw their pensions, and when we hit 85 and incontinence and immobility are the order of the day. We will realise then, that our split-level executive style Barratt houses from the 1990s will be the downpayment on the incontinence nurse's salary.
I think the full state pension is £9.3k and the average annuity on a private pension about £3k, so that gets you to about £12.5k - or over £1,000 per month.
When you bear in mind that pensioners won't pay NI or income tax on that, get OAP discounts in most places, get free buses, a winter fuel allowance, and get a free TV licence, then it allows for a decent basic retirement. Particularly if you've paid off the mortgage.
You might want to have a much more luxurious retirement than that, but should it be the duty of the State to pay for it?
IMHO, there are far greater calls on the public purse - particularly for those of working age.
It works fine if the pensioners are a couple. Not so great if single, particularly if a younger, active person wishing to do stuff. Financial planning is key and making sensible decisions about occupational pensions.
Which is that while on the one hand it is just a sporting occasion, on another it is an opportunity where the hopes and dreams of a whole people come together – even for a moment.
We all focus on the same ball, we all focus on the same goal. There is nothing bad about this. It reminds us that there can be things that unite us and that they should survive off the pitch as well as on it.
Douglas never put it like that but, to be fair, London *has* become a foreign country. It's spun-off and transcended itself to become a global mega-city with every sort of language spoken on the streets, and people from all over the world, but also all rather individualised. Many Londoners with roots stretching back generations have moved out, and Britons are now in a minority. Most of those you see and hear speaking English in the City and Westminster are commuters. London is intense, dynamic, interesting, but also rather transient. It's become rather a strange place.
We know it's true because someone posted that video of London in the 1970s on here a couple of days ago, and the differences are obvious - the changes of the last 30 years, in particular, have been vast.
Now, you might well welcome those changes and think they're all for the better, and to an extent I agree with that, but London has a very different feel and culture to much of the rest of the country now - even to Hampshire - so it's not mutually-exclusive or unreasonable to say it feels like an alien world and celebrate the successes of a diverse England team at the same time.
I think the full state pension is £9.3k and the average annuity on a private pension about £3k, so that gets you to about £12.5k - or over £1,000 per month.
When you bear in mind that pensioners won't pay NI or income tax on that, get OAP discounts in most places, get free buses, a winter fuel allowance, and get a free TV licence, then it allows for a decent basic retirement. Particularly if you've paid off the mortgage.
You might want to have a much more luxurious retirement than that, but should it be the duty of the State to pay for it?
IMHO, there are far greater calls on the public purse - particularly for those of working age.
Hasn't that free TV license gone?
But yep once the mortgage is paid off there is plenty of money around for other things.
I think the Beeb now pay for it for over 75s? (memory.. haven't googled)
I think the full state pension is £9.3k and the average annuity on a private pension about £3k, so that gets you to about £12.5k - or over £1,000 per month.
When you bear in mind that pensioners won't pay NI or income tax on that, get OAP discounts in most places, get free buses, a winter fuel allowance, and get a free TV licence, then it allows for a decent basic retirement. Particularly if you've paid off the mortgage.
You might want to have a much more luxurious retirement than that, but should it be the duty of the State to pay for it?
IMHO, there are far greater calls on the public purse - particularly for those of working age.
Does the average person really only manage to save 60k or so into a pension over their lifetime? I'm wondering if maybe these figures are averaged across pension pots... and people who have more than one job might have multiple pension pots?
Sunak should be bold, not only should be get rid of the triple lock he should introduce things like NI for (working) pensioners.
He should just get rid of the waste of space that is NI
A former Chancellor once said that is the policy goal of every Chancellor, sadly it can only be introduced with a government with a majority of 400 and in year one of a ten year term.
Full abolition might be complicated by Employer NI rates, he thinks clever people would move plenty of their salary as benefits where the NI rate is what just under 14%?
There are very few things you can claim via salary sacrifice nowadays - literally the only worthwhile options are pensions and electric cars.
But the increase of Employer NI over the years has made combining Income tax and National insurance an impossible task.
But it's also exactly why it should be done. Having a jobs tax like that is completely counterproductive. It also means whole segments of the economy find a mammoth incentive for employer and employee to mutually agree to underreporting of wages.
Not something I've ever engaged in but I know many people who made no secret of the fact that their wages were eg £100 a week cash in hand better than what was reported on their payslip. Employer dodges NI, Employee dodges NI and IC and keeps UC. Everyone's a winner except honest employers competing and honest taxpayers.
Oh I know of some people who were doing that and then the furlough scheme come along - they were not happy, no cash in hand money and minimal furlough amounts.
Being blunt though those firms would be doing the same even if there were no Employer NI savings - one of the large umbrella firms has introduced a new expenses policy because they were losing workers to a different umbrella firm due to that firms generous expenses rules.
Sunak should be bold, not only should be get rid of the triple lock he should introduce things like NI for (working) pensioners.
He should certainly do the latter. The best way would be to abolish NI and incorporate it into IT so that it is also paid by those receiving dividend income as well.
Some reports that Johnson may declare 19th July a national holiday.
I've got appointment made with clients in Northern Ireland that week. I have the flights, the car and the hotel pre-booked for four days for both myself and my business partner. We can't afford to waste a quarter of my pre-paid time dicking about doing nothing for the day. Haven't we had enough holidays? He can f*** right off at such short notice!
It's possible it will happen, but if not...
BoJo will get the credit for floating the idea, and someone else will get the blame for shooting it down.
Like the Fun Uncle who would love to buy you a Knickerbocker Glory but your mean old parents won't let him.
Apologies if this has already been pointed out, but, err, no, the Tory programme at GE2010 did not include the triple lock. It was a LibDem policy, a fact which oddly enough seems to have been airbrushed out of history. It became government policy because the LibDems insisted on it. What's more, it was Theresa May who wanted to end it, in the 2017 manifesto. Both Labour and the LibDems said they'd keep it. In fact, back in 2014 the Libdems vowed that making it permanent would be a pre-condition for any future coalition deal:
In other words, the idea that it is specifically the Conservatives who feather-bed their pensioner voters with this policy is codswallop.
On the politics now, no, I don't think Sunak will be overruled. The effect of applying it this year is so grotesque that I don't think it will happen. The political cost of suspending it will be zero. No-one thinks it's sensible to uprate pensions so steeply because of a temporary quirk in the figures caused by the quite exceptional circumstances of the pandemic. The only thing preventing this is the manifesto promise, but who on earth thinks Boris ever feels himself bound by a promise?
Sunak should be bold, not only should be get rid of the triple lock he should introduce things like NI for (working) pensioners.
NI on pension income too as well please. The old farts use healthcare services the most and pay in the least despite many having huge incomes. Working people mustn't shoulder the burden of social care. Javid is a fool if he thinks people will vote Tory for a tax rise to fund social care. The oldies need to pay.
Indeed.
My longest standing number one desire is to see UC, IC and NIC all merged into one.
Have a single rate of real taxation and then absolutely no means tested anything ever.
Which is that while on the one hand it is just a sporting occasion, on another it is an opportunity where the hopes and dreams of a whole people come together – even for a moment.
We all focus on the same ball, we all focus on the same goal. There is nothing bad about this. It reminds us that there can be things that unite us and that they should survive off the pitch as well as on it.
Douglas never put it like that but, to be fair, London *has* become a foreign country. It's spun-off and transcended itself to become a global mega-city with every sort of language spoken on the streets, and people from all over the world, but also all rather individualised. Many Londoners with roots stretching back generations have moved out, and Britons are now in a minority. Most of those you see and hear speaking English in the City and Westminster are commuters. London is intense, dynamic, interesting, but also rather transient. It's become rather a strange place.
We know it's true because someone posted that video of London in the 1970s on here a couple of days ago, and the differences are obvious - the changes of the last 30 years, in particular, have been vast.
Now, you might well welcome those changes and think they're all for the better, and to an extent I agree with that, but London has a very different feel and culture to much of the rest of the country now - even to Hampshire - so it's not mutually-exclusive or unreasonable to say it feels like an alien world and celebrate the successes of a diverse England team at the same team.
Well said. I'm always stunned when I visit London on my very rare trips down there. It's really amazing and I think it's great. It's the diversity of the UK which is so remarkable and gives me hope.
Mr. Z, entirely possible that the bookie might have specific conditions forbidding such betting patterns, as per bans on using free cash to repeatedly back red and black in roulette to satisfy a wagering requirement.
If you have a Betfair account then make counterbets there. It'll achieve the same effect without risk of voiding, and allow you to do so six rather than three times. Obviously check the odds first to ensure they line up*, but as the bookie bets are profit only with zero risk of loss that should be rather straightforward.
Sunak should be bold, not only should be get rid of the triple lock he should introduce things like NI for (working) pensioners.
The people who should have been taxed are the current and recently departed pensioners who enjoyed tax free jam and cream final salary pensions and triple locks, and you want me to cough up NI.
And you want to tax me more ..
IMO the ridiculous one is higher rate pensions relief. Costs a fortune & precisely targeted at the wrong group we need to encourage to save.
I have £30 in free bets from coral. Or rather £5 x 6 free bets, not sure you can aggregate.
How can I most profitably use these on the footie? Can I not guarantee a profit by backing both sides to win, both to score the first goal, etc?
Usually they have a lot of rules on what you can do with free bets. Not allowed to be odds-on, not allowed to back more than 50% of the runners, they don’t return your stake only the profit etc. Read the Ts and Cs carefully, or they’ll just void your bets!
I’d back Italy to win, they’ll you’ll either be happy or up. I lost £50 on Denmark the other night and it was brilliant!
If betting on a match you are watching, as you say bet on the results you really don't want. I would usually bet on the nil-nil draw (so 90 minutes of boredom) and depending on the odds the opposition winning
Some reports that Johnson may declare 19th July a national holiday.
I've got appointment made with clients in Northern Ireland that week. I have the flights, the car and the hotel pre-booked for four days for both myself and my business partner. We can't afford to waste a quarter of my pre-paid time dicking about doing nothing for the day. Haven't we had enough holidays? He can f*** right off at such short notice!
Yes, I agree. I wonder about the public impact. Nearly everyone likes a day off in principle but this is such an obvious bread-and-circuses move for popularity that many of us will be frankly scornful. But politicians do bread and circuses things for a reason, and maybe it'll genuinely help his popularity? The impact on the economy will be limited as most people can either ignore it as you plan to do or catch up in the following days - the exception is physical work like building where there will be a genuine 1-day delay.
On topic, I'm a beneficiary, but trying to be unbiased. The 9% jump is not really a random artifact, because the implication of the policy is that we missed out on normal earnings growth last year. But the whole triple lock is an outrage when so many people are struggling, so I'd go along with Sunak scrapping it, while making sardonic remarks about Tory promises only being worthwhile when it suits them.
Re your last para Nick the maths/logic isn't correct. We wouldn't have got 2 earnings related increases to the pension in both years because of netting out. Last year we got the 2.5% increase instead because inflation and earnings were below this. So it will be 2.5% plus 8% = 10.5+compounding for the two years.
If earnings hadn't taken a dip and now a big rise the net would probably have been less than 2.5% for each year meaning (assuming inflation is below 2.5% in both years also which it will be) we would have got 2.5% each year = 5%+ compounding.
I think the full state pension is £9.3k and the average annuity on a private pension about £3k, so that gets you to about £12.5k - or over £1,000 per month.
When you bear in mind that pensioners won't pay NI or income tax on that, get OAP discounts in most places, get free buses, a winter fuel allowance, and get a free TV licence, then it allows for a decent basic retirement. Particularly if you've paid off the mortgage.
You might want to have a much more luxurious retirement than that, but should it be the duty of the State to pay for it?
IMHO, there are far greater calls on the public purse - particularly for those of working age.
I don't understand why we still see so many pensioner discounts.
They were perhaps reasonable when there pensioners were fewer and poorer but why should they for example get into sports matches for less than a debt laden under 30.
Because it is harder to take away a freebie than it is to introduce one. Look at the ludicrous row over TV licences.
The trick is to not start but politicians get tempted by buying support in these simplistic ways as it can be done fairly cheaply, but it all mounts up.
I think the full state pension is £9.3k and the average annuity on a private pension about £3k, so that gets you to about £12.5k - or over £1,000 per month.
When you bear in mind that pensioners won't pay NI or income tax on that, get OAP discounts in most places, get free buses, a winter fuel allowance, and get a free TV licence, then it allows for a decent basic retirement. Particularly if you've paid off the mortgage.
You might want to have a much more luxurious retirement than that, but should it be the duty of the State to pay for it?
IMHO, there are far greater calls on the public purse - particularly for those of working age.
Does the average person really only manage to save 60k or so into a pension over their lifetime? I'm wondering if maybe these figures are averaged across pension pots... and people who have more than one job might have multiple pension pots?
Yes, or less. But it should get better in future.
Minimum wage is £8.91. 8 hours per day. 225 days per year. About £16k full time.
Employer pays 5% and employee puts in 3% (where legal minimums are heading) so you should squirrel away over £1k a year. Over a 40 year working life that should compound up to £80-£120k, I think, depending on fund growth, but what annuity you could buy with it at the end I don't know.
Which is that while on the one hand it is just a sporting occasion, on another it is an opportunity where the hopes and dreams of a whole people come together – even for a moment.
We all focus on the same ball, we all focus on the same goal. There is nothing bad about this. It reminds us that there can be things that unite us and that they should survive off the pitch as well as on it.
Douglas never put it like that but, to be fair, London *has* become a foreign country. It's spun-off and transcended itself to become a global mega-city with every sort of language spoken on the streets, and people from all over the world, but also all rather individualised. Many Londoners with roots stretching back generations have moved out, and Britons are now in a minority. Most of those you see and hear speaking English in the City and Westminster are commuters. London is intense, dynamic, interesting, but also rather transient. It's become rather a strange place.
We know it's true because someone posted that video of London in the 1970s on here a couple of days ago, and the differences are obvious - the changes of the last 30 years, in particular, have been vast.
Now, you might well welcome those changes and think they're all for the better, and to an extent I agree with that, but London has a very different feel and culture to much of the rest of the country now - even to Hampshire - so it's not mutually-exclusive or unreasonable to say it feels like an alien world and celebrate the successes of a diverse England team at the same team.
Well said. I'm always stunned when I visit London on my very rare trips down there. It's really amazing and I think it's great. It's the diversity of the UK which is so remarkable and gives me hope.
Yes, to an extent, but diversity has become a bit of a religion now and we forget how important community is. I think London has lost much of that, except some little gems in Bermondsey, Brixton and places like that.
What I like about the current English football team is how it's bringing everyone together and making national pride fashionable again. I'd like to see a bit more of that.
Yes, there's a lot of variety between in how we look, act and experience life but please, please, let's celebrate what we share too and just have a bit of fun for once.
Sunak should be bold, not only should be get rid of the triple lock he should introduce things like NI for (working) pensioners.
He should just get rid of the waste of space that is NI
A former Chancellor once said that is the policy goal of every Chancellor, sadly it can only be introduced with a government with a majority of 400 and in year one of a ten year term.
Full abolition might be complicated by Employer NI rates, he thinks clever people would move plenty of their salary as benefits where the NI rate is what just under 14%?
There are very few things you can claim via salary sacrifice nowadays - literally the only worthwhile options are pensions and electric cars.
But the increase of Employer NI over the years has made combining Income tax and National insurance an impossible task.
But it's also exactly why it should be done. Having a jobs tax like that is completely counterproductive. It also means whole segments of the economy find a mammoth incentive for employer and employee to mutually agree to underreporting of wages.
Not something I've ever engaged in but I know many people who made no secret of the fact that their wages were eg £100 a week cash in hand better than what was reported on their payslip. Employer dodges NI, Employee dodges NI and IC and keeps UC. Everyone's a winner except honest employers competing and honest taxpayers.
Oh I know of some people who were doing that and then the furlough scheme come along - they were not happy, no cash in hand money and minimal furlough amounts.
Being blunt though those firms would be doing the same even if there were no Employer NI savings - one of the large umbrella firms has introduced a new expenses policy because they were losing workers to a different umbrella firm due to that firms generous expenses rules.
It's like RCS1000 always says about illegal working and the Swiss; one party should always be better off from being honest. If that happens you give a tremendous incentive to be honest.
We currently penalise employees for earning more and penalise employers for paying more then act shocked that people cooperate to underreport wages.
For employers wages are an expense not an income so the logical situation is that the more an employer reports in wages the lower their tax bill should be, not the other way around. That would largely eliminate the employers incentive to engage in fraud.
Which is that while on the one hand it is just a sporting occasion, on another it is an opportunity where the hopes and dreams of a whole people come together – even for a moment.
We all focus on the same ball, we all focus on the same goal. There is nothing bad about this. It reminds us that there can be things that unite us and that they should survive off the pitch as well as on it.
I think the full state pension is £9.3k and the average annuity on a private pension about £3k, so that gets you to about £12.5k - or over £1,000 per month.
When you bear in mind that pensioners won't pay NI or income tax on that, get OAP discounts in most places, get free buses, a winter fuel allowance, and get a free TV licence, then it allows for a decent basic retirement. Particularly if you've paid off the mortgage.
You might want to have a much more luxurious retirement than that, but should it be the duty of the State to pay for it?
IMHO, there are far greater calls on the public purse - particularly for those of working age.
Hasn't that free TV license gone?
But yep once the mortgage is paid off there is plenty of money around for other things.
I think the Beeb now pay for it for over 75s? (memory.. haven't googled)
No you have to receive pension credits to get it. My Dad who is 95 has to pay for his. But then so he should.
It would help hugely if Johnson stopped splurging stupid amounts on vanity projects.
The royal yacht is an example of a f-ing stupid piece of uncosted vanity. We've been here with Johnson many times before: bendy buses, water canons, cable cars, HS2. And don't forget he wanted to build a brand new London airport in the Thames estuary.
He's a menace with money.
But at least he and Carrie managed to save part of Downing Streeet from being decorated from John Lewis
This twitter thread has links to live tally data from the Dublin Bay South count, and other happenings at the same. Sounds like an entertaining start to the day.
I think the full state pension is £9.3k and the average annuity on a private pension about £3k, so that gets you to about £12.5k - or over £1,000 per month.
When you bear in mind that pensioners won't pay NI or income tax on that, get OAP discounts in most places, get free buses, a winter fuel allowance, and get a free TV licence, then it allows for a decent basic retirement. Particularly if you've paid off the mortgage.
You might want to have a much more luxurious retirement than that, but should it be the duty of the State to pay for it?
IMHO, there are far greater calls on the public purse - particularly for those of working age.
Hasn't that free TV license gone?
But yep once the mortgage is paid off there is plenty of money around for other things.
I think the Beeb now pay for it for over 75s? (memory.. haven't googled)
No you have to receive pension credits to get it. My Dad who is 95 has to pay for his. But then so he should.
The England team, in common with other teams, have finely balanced athletes who for some reason discover patches of ice when they enter the penalty area. Should we blame the grounds men?
They're competing against the Azzurri - AKA The Royal Shakespeare Company.
In fairness one of the best things about this tournament is the number of times referees have just ignored the supposedly pole axed player and encouraged teams to play on. There has clearly been directions about this and it is very good for the game. The referees have been excellent, the best I can remember at a major tournament.
LOL Tory MP Lee Anderson announces on facebook that he will continue his boycott of watching England during final (over players taking the knee), but that he'll be "checking my phone for updates to see if they've scored and cheer if they have" https://twitter.com/joncstone/status/1413196603754795010
Which is that while on the one hand it is just a sporting occasion, on another it is an opportunity where the hopes and dreams of a whole people come together – even for a moment.
We all focus on the same ball, we all focus on the same goal. There is nothing bad about this. It reminds us that there can be things that unite us and that they should survive off the pitch as well as on it.
Douglas never put it like that but, to be fair, London *has* become a foreign country. It's spun-off and transcended itself to become a global mega-city with every sort of language spoken on the streets, and people from all over the world, but also all rather individualised. Many Londoners with roots stretching back generations have moved out, and Britons are now in a minority. Most of those you see and hear speaking English in the City and Westminster are commuters. London is intense, dynamic, interesting, but also rather transient. It's become rather a strange place.
We know it's true because someone posted that video of London in the 1970s on here a couple of days ago, and the differences are obvious - the changes of the last 30 years, in particular, have been vast.
Now, you might well welcome those changes and think they're all for the better, and to an extent I agree with that, but London has a very different feel and culture to much of the rest of the country now - even to Hampshire - so it's not mutually-exclusive or unreasonable to say it feels like an alien world and celebrate the successes of a diverse England team at the same time.
London is very different, for sure, but it's only strange if you're not used to it. When I leave London it feels very strange to me to be surrounded entirely by white people, for instance, really jarring. Takes a while to get used to it. I would also dispute the idea that it's transitory. Where I live in SE London (zone 2, one train stop from London Bridge) most of our neighbours have lived here for years, decades even. Our next door neighbour is in his 50s and was born on this street. Many ethnic minority communities in places like Brick Lane or Southall or Brixton have lived there for 60 years plus, maybe on the third generation born there, so they're not really transient either. Over time as people move in and out of London the rest of the country is only going to become more like London. So I'd recommended people spending some time here, we are your future. (And it's great).
Which is that while on the one hand it is just a sporting occasion, on another it is an opportunity where the hopes and dreams of a whole people come together – even for a moment.
We all focus on the same ball, we all focus on the same goal. There is nothing bad about this. It reminds us that there can be things that unite us and that they should survive off the pitch as well as on it.
I think the full state pension is £9.3k and the average annuity on a private pension about £3k, so that gets you to about £12.5k - or over £1,000 per month.
When you bear in mind that pensioners won't pay NI or income tax on that, get OAP discounts in most places, get free buses, a winter fuel allowance, and get a free TV licence, then it allows for a decent basic retirement. Particularly if you've paid off the mortgage.
You might want to have a much more luxurious retirement than that, but should it be the duty of the State to pay for it?
IMHO, there are far greater calls on the public purse - particularly for those of working age.
Does the average person really only manage to save 60k or so into a pension over their lifetime? I'm wondering if maybe these figures are averaged across pension pots... and people who have more than one job might have multiple pension pots?
It is only recently that employers were required to provide pension schemes at all. Many people in low-wage jobs have no savings. I've not seen the figures but it would not surprise me if £60k is correct but it might be misleading if there is a large tail with almost nothing and not a smooth curve.
Apologies if this has already been pointed out, but, err, no, the Tory programme at GE2010 did not include the triple lock. It was a LibDem policy, a fact which oddly enough seems to have been airbrushed out of history. It became government policy because the LibDems insisted on it. What's more, it was Theresa May who wanted to end it, in the 2017 manifesto. Both Labour and the LibDems said they'd keep it. In fact, back in 2014 the Libdems vowed that making it permanent would be a pre-condition for any future coalition deal:
In other words, the idea that it is specifically the Conservatives who feather-bed their pensioner voters with this policy is codswallop.
On the politics now, no, I don't think Sunak will be overruled. The effect of applying it this year is so grotesque that I don't think it will happen. The political cost of suspending it will be zero. No-one thinks it's sensible to uprate pensions so steeply because of a temporary quirk in the figures caused by the quite exceptional circumstances of the pandemic. The only thing preventing this is the manifesto promise, but who on earth thinks Boris ever feels himself bound by a promise?
All very true Richard but like everything else in the Coalition government the Lib Dems have been willing participants in airbrushing out their contributions for good and ill alike. Very foolish to my mind but a deliberate choice.
Sunak should be bold, not only should be get rid of the triple lock he should introduce things like NI for (working) pensioners.
I am less than a decade away from the state pension, that and my relatively pathetic private pension won't cut the mustard so I will remain scratching around to make a living until I drop. And you want to tax me more!
The people who should have been taxed are the current and recently departed pensioners who enjoyed tax free jam and cream final salary pensions and triple locks, and you want me to cough up NI.
Currently home owning, BMW driving, 'I done good' Boris voters of my generation are going to get a big shock when they arrive at the day they draw their pensions, and when we hit 85 and incontinence and immobility are the order of the day. We will realise then, that our split-level executive style Barratt houses from the 1990s will be the downpayment on the incontinence nurse's salary.
And you want to tax me more ..
Yup, for the greater good
I mean you don't hear me complain paying 45% income tax.
The whole system is messed up.
I'm a diabetic, so I get my prescriptions for free.
Yet someone who earns slightly above the minimum wage, has to pay for theirs.
One anomaly that probably will not be addressed is that once you take any money out of your pension pot, you lose most of the tax advantages on future contributions, so it discourages returning to work.
Sunak should be bold, not only should be get rid of the triple lock he should introduce things like NI for (working) pensioners.
He should just get rid of the waste of space that is NI
A former Chancellor once said that is the policy goal of every Chancellor, sadly it can only be introduced with a government with a majority of 400 and in year one of a ten year term.
Full abolition might be complicated by Employer NI rates, he thinks clever people would move plenty of their salary as benefits where the NI rate is what just under 14%?
There are very few things you can claim via salary sacrifice nowadays - literally the only worthwhile options are pensions and electric cars.
But the increase of Employer NI over the years has made combining Income tax and National insurance an impossible task.
But it's also exactly why it should be done. Having a jobs tax like that is completely counterproductive. It also means whole segments of the economy find a mammoth incentive for employer and employee to mutually agree to underreporting of wages.
Not something I've ever engaged in but I know many people who made no secret of the fact that their wages were eg £100 a week cash in hand better than what was reported on their payslip. Employer dodges NI, Employee dodges NI and IC and keeps UC. Everyone's a winner except honest employers competing and honest taxpayers.
Oh I know of some people who were doing that and then the furlough scheme come along - they were not happy, no cash in hand money and minimal furlough amounts.
Being blunt though those firms would be doing the same even if there were no Employer NI savings - one of the large umbrella firms has introduced a new expenses policy because they were losing workers to a different umbrella firm due to that firms generous expenses rules.
It's like RCS1000 always says about illegal working and the Swiss; one party should always be better off from being honest. If that happens you give a tremendous incentive to be honest.
We currently penalise employees for earning more and penalise employers for paying more then act shocked that people cooperate to underreport wages.
For employers wages are an expense not an income so the logical situation is that the more an employer reports in wages the lower their tax bill should be, not the other way around. That would largely eliminate the employers incentive to engage in fraud.
The incentive for employers to engage in fraud is simply their ability to retain employees - see my previous reply.
But that is getting to be far harder than it used to be - as an example did you know that one of the sectors where wages increased most between 2009 and 2018 was private hire drivers - where real wages increased 40%.
They didn't but it's far harder to hide money when it's no longer paid in cash and the taxi firms / uber need to report all payments.
LOL Tory MP Lee Anderson announces on facebook that he will continue his boycott of watching England during final (over players taking the knee), but that he'll be "checking my phone for updates to see if they've scored and cheer if they have" https://twitter.com/joncstone/status/1413196603754795010
Which is that while on the one hand it is just a sporting occasion, on another it is an opportunity where the hopes and dreams of a whole people come together – even for a moment.
We all focus on the same ball, we all focus on the same goal. There is nothing bad about this. It reminds us that there can be things that unite us and that they should survive off the pitch as well as on it.
Douglas never put it like that but, to be fair, London *has* become a foreign country. It's spun-off and transcended itself to become a global mega-city with every sort of language spoken on the streets, and people from all over the world, but also all rather individualised. Many Londoners with roots stretching back generations have moved out, and Britons are now in a minority. Most of those you see and hear speaking English in the City and Westminster are commuters. London is intense, dynamic, interesting, but also rather transient. It's become rather a strange place.
We know it's true because someone posted that video of London in the 1970s on here a couple of days ago, and the differences are obvious - the changes of the last 30 years, in particular, have been vast.
Now, you might well welcome those changes and think they're all for the better, and to an extent I agree with that, but London has a very different feel and culture to much of the rest of the country now - even to Hampshire - so it's not mutually-exclusive or unreasonable to say it feels like an alien world and celebrate the successes of a diverse England team at the same time.
London is very different, for sure, but it's only strange if you're not used to it. When I leave London it feels very strange to me to be surrounded entirely by white people, for instance, really jarring. Takes a while to get used to it. I would also dispute the idea that it's transitory. Where I live in SE London (zone 2, one train stop from London Bridge) most of our neighbours have lived here for years, decades even. Our next door neighbour is in his 50s and was born on this street. Many ethnic minority communities in places like Brick Lane or Southall or Brixton have lived there for 60 years plus, maybe on the third generation born there, so they're not really transient either. Over time as people move in and out of London the rest of the country is only going to become more like London. So I'd recommended people spending some time here, we are your future. (And it's great).
we are your future. (And it's great)
How do London's home ownership and inequality levels compare with the rest of Britain.
LOL Tory MP Lee Anderson announces on facebook that he will continue his boycott of watching England during final (over players taking the knee), but that he'll be "checking my phone for updates to see if they've scored and cheer if they have" https://twitter.com/joncstone/status/1413196603754795010
Which is that while on the one hand it is just a sporting occasion, on another it is an opportunity where the hopes and dreams of a whole people come together – even for a moment.
We all focus on the same ball, we all focus on the same goal. There is nothing bad about this. It reminds us that there can be things that unite us and that they should survive off the pitch as well as on it.
All very true Richard but like everything else in the Coalition government the Lib Dems have been willing participants in airbrushing out their contributions for good and ill alike. Very foolish to my mind but a deliberate choice.
The thing which is particularly odd about it is that, in 2010, it was a quite sensible policy, provided it was time limited. Pensions had fallen back very substantially compared with average earnings, and gradually correcting this over (say) five years and protecting pensioners (many of whom are very poor) from the fall-out of the financial crisis was perfectly defensible.
The trouble is that, like many such policies, it has now become a totem in its own right. As a general rule, governments should never tie themselves into straitjackets, but they repeatedly do.
Which is that while on the one hand it is just a sporting occasion, on another it is an opportunity where the hopes and dreams of a whole people come together – even for a moment.
We all focus on the same ball, we all focus on the same goal. There is nothing bad about this. It reminds us that there can be things that unite us and that they should survive off the pitch as well as on it.
'Genocide is fine if you're doing it for Jesus' is not a hot take I ever expected to read outside of The Onion/Daily Mash.
It's the only logical conclusion from the (batshit) Christian premise that Christ died for everyone, but initially confined the good news to a handful of Palestinian Jews and hoped it would kinda spread by word of mouth. The Church routinely OKed slavery because if you are enslaved but also Christianised, you come out ahead.
Comments
Pagel and co are talking about % of people who have had covid I think, although I still have no idea where they get 30% from.
Boris Johnson’s confidence that England can drop COVID restrictions on July 19 has raised many questions. We’ve tried to distil the questions and criticisms and the government’s defence.
https://twitter.com/BBCRosAtkins/status/1413219167130509314?s=20
https://twitter.com/lozzafox/status/1413135621237788672?s=21
https://twitter.com/jdportes/status/1413316968934002701
London doesn't really have those.
In a couple of places they actually tried changing the road layout to decrease the sharpness of the turns, to help the bendy buses.
There is a reason that London in known for double decker buses. It is a design that works with the basic road layout.
A depressing thought is that if Russia and China were suddenly granted free and fair elections by a good fairy, a majority of voters in both countries would still vote for Vlad and Xi.
Heard last night that a cousin and her husband, who were both double jabbed sometime ago, both got covid. Both suffered bad flu like symptoms. Both now well but are both suffering from breathlessness.
Must admit slightly dented my confidence as I have been pretty happy to go back to normal.
The England team, in common with other teams, have finely balanced athletes who for some reason discover patches of ice when they enter the penalty area. Should we blame the grounds men?
They're competing against the Azzurri - AKA The Royal Shakespeare Company.
If it had been like 4.5%, that would I suggest have been arguable more difficult.
Macron 1.9
Le Pen 5.7
Bertrand 7.2
Zemmour 30
Melenchon 36
Philippe 55
Barnier 60
Hidalgo 85
Hildalgo may come in a bit, given that mayor of Paris is a very visible position.
Zemmour will probably back whoever is most right-wing in the second round.
Gotta wonder whether Le Pen will stay the course, but there's a long way to go.
In any case, maintaining the triple lock was in the manifesto. So was the .7% aid budget of course.
Where the state pension might seem generous is in topping up high personal pensions. Means testing might be an option here, phasing out the state pension at high income levels but it would need to be very high else people will game the system. There are already problems with doctors at the top end of contribution limits.
I have to say I do have rather contradictory thoughts about this stuff. It seems to make sense to wear a mask on a packed tube train, but would be bonkers to expect people to wear masks in a packed nighclub, but the latter I presume would be much worse for infection. I guess it is down to the level of inconvenience vs risk.
I think a packed train is the only place I will voluntarily wear a mask.
"With the Pfizer-BioNTech, estimates of effectiveness against infection range from around 55 to 70%, with the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine they range from around 60 to 70%"
PHE report
Full abolition might be complicated by Employer NI rates, he thinks clever people would move plenty of their salary as benefits where the NI rate is what just under 14%?
Damned clever the virus to know to leave certain contractors alone.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=QgJlnsqbtfg
Sellout 50k crowd for the next three days - sadly not including me, who had tickets for last year’s cancelled event (and the Grand Prix next weekend), and had to send them back
And @DecrepiterJohnL its better to avoid admin costs when it comes to benefits but I don't think that is actually true with pensioners as I suspect there would be few savings available due to all the other ways in which pensioners qualify for a few pounds.
I have a beef personally (although I suspect I wont get much sympathy from the WASPI ladies) in that I lost a years pension by being born a few weeks late.
The tapering could have been better, but otherwise the decisions to align and delay pensions to an older age are correct.
But the increase of Employer NI over the years has made combining Income tax and National insurance an impossible task.
When you bear in mind that pensioners won't pay NI or income tax on that, get OAP discounts in most places, get free buses, a winter fuel allowance, and get a free TV licence, then it allows for a decent basic retirement. Particularly if you've paid off the mortgage.
You might want to have a much more luxurious retirement than that, but should it be the duty of the State to pay for it?
IMHO, there are far greater calls on the public purse - particularly for those of working age.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/jul/09/whats-in-the-england-teams-names-english-heritage-explains-all
Don't shout me down, but I get the impression that Boris's cabinet is beginning to show signs of being inhabited by quite distinctive politicians in their own right. Whatever you think of them individually, Sunak, Patel, Javid, Gove, Truss make for a colourful and eclectic team, far removed from some of their "battleship grey" predecessors. If Boris promotes Penny Mordaunt to a more prominent position that impression would be underlined further.
But yep once the mortgage is paid off there is plenty of money around for other things.
Now it will never be the right time, it hits the vulnerable etc etc and the memory of the bad pandemic times will fade, along with any support for ways to fill the coffers, beyond theoretical support.
I have £30 in free bets from coral. Or rather £5 x 6 free bets, not sure you can aggregate.
How can I most profitably use these on the footie? Can I not guarantee a profit by backing both sides to win, both to score the first goal, etc?
What with not eating out so much, not travelling abroad and therefore missing out on the marvellous microbiological diversity of this planet and the soiled hands of other people cooking my dinner I do think the old immune cells have had too much time on their hands.
They were perhaps reasonable when there pensioners were fewer and poorer but why should they for example get into sports matches for less than a debt laden under 30.
On topic, I'm a beneficiary, but trying to be unbiased. The 9% jump is not really a random artifact, because the implication of the policy is that we missed out on normal earnings growth last year. But the whole triple lock is an outrage when so many people are struggling, so I'd go along with Sunak scrapping it, while making sardonic remarks about Tory promises only being worthwhile when it suits them.
I’d back Italy to win, they’ll you’ll either be happy or up. I lost £50 on Denmark the other night and it was brilliant!
NI on pension income will likely be introduced only on future pension income with current pensioners being ringfenced.
https://youtu.be/__G4RrlGmVk?t=71s
Not something I've ever engaged in but I know many people who made no secret of the fact that their wages were eg £100 a week cash in hand better than what was reported on their payslip. Employer dodges NI, Employee dodges NI and IC and keeps UC. Everyone's a winner except honest employers competing and honest taxpayers.
If you are prepared to do a bit more work, see if any of the bookmakers' odds are misaligned with Betfair, if you have an account. Use your free bet at the bookie, and your own money on the opposite bet at Betfair, safe in the knowledge that if you lose the free bet will cover it (and hopefully slightly more).
Or, alternatively, you may find it is more fun, rather than levelling out the two outcomes, to leave the potential profit on the outsider.
So rather than be guaranteed to win £1 either way, be guaranteed £0 on one outcome and say £5 on the other, or more, depending on the bet. Potentially a bit more fun.
When I am an old woman I shall wear purple
With a red hat which doesn’t go, and doesn’t suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals, and say we’ve no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I’m tired
And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
And run my stick along the public railings
And make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
And pick flowers in other people’s gardens
And learn to spit.
You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat
And eat three pounds of sausages at a go
Or only bread and pickle for a week
And hoard pens and pencils and beermats and things in boxes.
But now we must have clothes that keep us dry
And pay our rent and not swear in the street
And set a good example for the children.
We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.
But maybe I ought to practise a little now?
So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised
When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.
Just a brilliant insight into human nature.
The people who should have been taxed are the current and recently departed pensioners who enjoyed tax free jam and cream final salary pensions and triple locks, and you want me to cough up NI.
Currently home owning, BMW driving, 'I done good' Boris voters of my generation are going to get a big shock when they arrive at the day they draw their pensions, and when we hit 85 and incontinence and immobility are the order of the day. We will realise then, that our split-level executive style Barratt houses from the 1990s will be the downpayment on the incontinence nurse's salary.
And you want to tax me more ..
We know it's true because someone posted that video of London in the 1970s on here a couple of days ago, and the differences are obvious - the changes of the last 30 years, in particular, have been vast.
Now, you might well welcome those changes and think they're all for the better, and to an extent I agree with that, but London has a very different feel and culture to much of the rest of the country now - even to Hampshire - so it's not mutually-exclusive or unreasonable to say it feels like an alien world and celebrate the successes of a diverse England team at the same time.
I'm wondering if maybe these figures are averaged across pension pots... and people who have more than one job might have multiple pension pots?
Being blunt though those firms would be doing the same even if there were no Employer NI savings - one of the large umbrella firms has introduced a new expenses policy because they were losing workers to a different umbrella firm due to that firms generous expenses rules.
BoJo will get the credit for floating the idea, and someone else will get the blame for shooting it down.
Like the Fun Uncle who would love to buy you a Knickerbocker Glory but your mean old parents won't let him.
https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-7812/CBP-7812.pdf
https://citywire.co.uk/new-model-adviser/news/lib-dems-vow-to-make-state-pension-triple-lock-permanent/a759399
In other words, the idea that it is specifically the Conservatives who feather-bed their pensioner voters with this policy is codswallop.
On the politics now, no, I don't think Sunak will be overruled. The effect of applying it this year is so grotesque that I don't think it will happen. The political cost of suspending it will be zero. No-one thinks it's sensible to uprate pensions so steeply because of a temporary quirk in the figures caused by the quite exceptional circumstances of the pandemic. The only thing preventing this is the manifesto promise, but who on earth thinks Boris ever feels himself bound by a promise?
My longest standing number one desire is to see UC, IC and NIC all merged into one.
Have a single rate of real taxation and then absolutely no means tested anything ever.
IND: 42.5% (+42.5)
GRN: 33.4% (+33.4)
LDEM: 11.6% (-15.9)
CON: 8.0% (-24.0)
LAB: 4.4% (-36.0)
Independent GAIN from Labour.
https://twitter.com/BritainElects/status/1413415615721873410?s=20
Ad there's several more with
Lab GAIN from Lib Dem,
Conservative GAIN from Independent.
Green GAIN from Conservative.
Conservative GAIN from Labour.
If you have a Betfair account then make counterbets there. It'll achieve the same effect without risk of voiding, and allow you to do so six rather than three times. Obviously check the odds first to ensure they line up*, but as the bookie bets are profit only with zero risk of loss that should be rather straightforward.
*Edited extra bit: to your satisfaction.
Costs a fortune & precisely targeted at the wrong group we need to encourage to save.
If earnings hadn't taken a dip and now a big rise the net would probably have been less than 2.5% for each year meaning (assuming inflation is below 2.5% in both years also which it will be) we would have got 2.5% each year = 5%+ compounding.
The trick is to not start but politicians get tempted by buying support in these simplistic ways as it can be done fairly cheaply, but it all mounts up.
Minimum wage is £8.91. 8 hours per day. 225 days per year. About £16k full time.
Employer pays 5% and employee puts in 3% (where legal minimums are heading) so you should squirrel away over £1k a year. Over a 40 year working life that should compound up to £80-£120k, I think, depending on fund growth, but what annuity you could buy with it at the end I don't know.
What I like about the current English football team is how it's bringing everyone together and making national pride fashionable again. I'd like to see a bit more of that.
Yes, there's a lot of variety between in how we look, act and experience life but please, please, let's celebrate what we share too and just have a bit of fun for once.
We currently penalise employees for earning more and penalise employers for paying more then act shocked that people cooperate to underreport wages.
For employers wages are an expense not an income so the logical situation is that the more an employer reports in wages the lower their tax bill should be, not the other way around. That would largely eliminate the employers incentive to engage in fraud.
https://twitter.com/jkass99/status/1413209136452411392
But at least he and Carrie managed to save part of Downing Streeet from being decorated from John Lewis
https://mobile.twitter.com/HMcEvansoneya/status/1413404926085107712
LAB: 58.0% (+58.0)
CON: 37.5% (-15.5)
LDEM: 4.5% (-42.5)
Labour GAIN from Liberal Democrat.
Feniton (East Devon), council by-election result:
CON: 53.5% (+40.9)
LAB: 28.2% (+23.4)
LDEM: 18.3% (+18.3)
Conservative GAIN from Independent.
No Ind (-82.6) as prev.
Mark Hall (Harlow), council by-election result:
CON: 46.4% (+23.2)
LAB: 41.7% (-0.9)
GRN: 7.3% (+7.3)
LDEM: 4.6% (-5.0)
Conservative GAIN from Labour.
St Neots East (Huntingdonshire), council by-election result:
IND: 42.5% (+42.5)
GRN: 33.4% (+33.4)
LDEM: 11.6% (-15.9)
CON: 8.0% (-24.0)
LAB: 4.4% (-36.0)
Independent GAIN from Labour.
Ardingly and Balcombe (Mid Sussex), council by-election result:
GRN: 36.9% (+13.6)
CON: 33.4% (-5.6)
LDEM: 27.8% (+1.0)
IND: 1.9% (+1.9)
Green GAIN from Conservative.
No Lab (-10.9) as prev.
Tory MP Lee Anderson announces on facebook that he will continue his boycott of watching England during final (over players taking the knee), but that he'll be "checking my phone for updates to see if they've scored and cheer if they have"
https://twitter.com/joncstone/status/1413196603754795010
I would also dispute the idea that it's transitory. Where I live in SE London (zone 2, one train stop from London Bridge) most of our neighbours have lived here for years, decades even. Our next door neighbour is in his 50s and was born on this street. Many ethnic minority communities in places like Brick Lane or Southall or Brixton have lived there for 60 years plus, maybe on the third generation born there, so they're not really transient either.
Over time as people move in and out of London the rest of the country is only going to become more like London. So I'd recommended people spending some time here, we are your future. (And it's great).
'Genocide is fine if you're doing it for Jesus' is not a hot take I ever expected to read outside of The Onion/Daily Mash.
I mean you don't hear me complain paying 45% income tax.
The whole system is messed up.
I'm a diabetic, so I get my prescriptions for free.
Yet someone who earns slightly above the minimum wage, has to pay for theirs.
But that is getting to be far harder than it used to be - as an example did you know that one of the sectors where wages increased most between 2009 and 2018 was private hire drivers - where real wages increased 40%.
They didn't but it's far harder to hide money when it's no longer paid in cash and the taxi firms / uber need to report all payments.
How do London's home ownership and inequality levels compare with the rest of Britain.
The trouble is that, like many such policies, it has now become a totem in its own right. As a general rule, governments should never tie themselves into straitjackets, but they repeatedly do.