General Election 2019

I don't necessarily agree with the Waspi policy, but there is a lot wrong with this comment. I'm tempted to play the man, not the ball, but will limit it to saying that you may want to consider how insensitive this comes across as.

Edited to save peoples fee fees.

That's pretty much how our pension system works and why it's £7tn in the hole.

I am sure the poorer boomer ladies can take comfort in knowing they belong to the richest generation.

I think you are absolutely right, we should give boomers more money, from millennials preferably

Yep, otherwise they might have to sell their houses and move into smaller ones, which would be a terrible shame.

Need to entrench the gerontocracy, accelerating wealth transfer from young to old helps to get the Tory vote in.

rather than being the great healer he is trying to portray himself as.

That's not the tone of his speech- it's a clear critique. You may not like him but he is worth listening to as he is the only election winning Labour leader knocking around. Maybe, just maybe, he's got some useful experience to share.

Please. The pension system has been pay as you go since forever. That mechanic has always driven pension policy decisions. This is not some generational gap thing and to portray it as such is silly.

That NI payments made today go to pensions paid today is not in question here (with me, it seems to be potentially being missed by others though).

Choosing to bribe women born in the 50's with 58Bn of your children's taxes didn't work, or at least not well enough, so it's moot really.

My point about policy was that the demographic and economic forecasts drive the decision to make the changes in the first place. Some generation will have to take a hit, and it will likely fall to ours. I do not expect a state pension to exist in any meaningful way for me so I have been maxing out my personal contribution since forever. 2008 really put a massive dent into that which frankly has never recovered. Remember when interest rates were higher than the square root of fuck all? Good times.

Not sure what point you're making here tbh.

Choosing to bribe women born in the 50's with 58Bn of your children's taxes didn't work, or at least not well enough, so it's moot really.

That's not a bribe, that is policy and that is the way all pensions have worked. The current workers pay for the retired ones.

My point was

Some generation will have to take a hit, and it will likely fall to ours.

as clearly no previous generation will be taking any hit and we (Gen X) will likely be sandwiched by shrinking workforces and shrinking GDPs

More generally the concept of a 25+ year period of retirement will in the future be seen as a historical anomaly, created by life expectancy increasing faster than policy and employment practices could keep up. Defined benefit pensions are just another example of the huge intergenerational wealth transfer that has gone on. But we digress.

I think you are absolutely right, we should give boomers more money, from millennials preferably

No, no, no, everyone, including the millennials and the boomers, should give lots of money to Generation X. I say this not out of self-interest but on grounds of principle and policy.

Could you means test waspi refunds and save some money and look vaguely sensible?

Looking forward to the Cons introducing a Logan's Run style Carrousel event so that we can protect our sunlit uplands and post-Brexit utopia for evermore.

Obviously it wouldn't be fair to apply it retroactively, so they'll just start with the people who are turning 30 now. And we can televise it, so their 65+ voter base has something to watch on the telly for a change!

Plus everyone hates millenials, so it'll be good to wipe the smug grins of their avocado-eating, long-term-renting faces, right?

As far as Jess Phillips goes, I've never particularly been a fan of how she undermined my bestie when he was in power, but I would love to see Boris taking shit from a strong, clever, witty, not southern woman as an opposition, and I think she'd be perfect as a person to highlight his massive flaws repeatedly, even if she wouldn't be my first choice as leader. I like her because she's honest, even if I don't agree with all she says, and she doesn't take any shit, which might help when she is given vast amounts of shit.

There is nothing inherently wrong with defined benefit.

There are defined benefit schemes out there that are paid for and don't relay on contributions today to pay for pensions today. They also shift the risk from an individual that probably knows nothing about investing to an organisation that is better placed to make good choices.

They of course cost a lot (one estimate is 20% for 80ths) which is a lot more than most people save.

massive TERF tho?

Blair, like Bill Clinton and Obama was an exceptional politician. He had, and still has, great charisma and confidence and articulacy. It's not difficult to see why they were popular. The other thing they all have in common is that they were never any threat at all to corporate power, corrupt City practices, or to the greed of billionaires. That was the transaction Blair made with Murdoch; you can have your Sure Start centres and you can redistribute some money but don't even think about coming after people like me.
New Labour said, possibly sincerely, that inequality didn't matter, that as long as the poor did better then it didn't matter if the super rich got super-richer. And they were wrong about that. Inequality destroys and divides societies.
So it is fair enough to credit Blair (and Brown, but he never gets a look in) with many, many improvements to ordinary peoples' lives but not to ignore the systemic changes they chose (or were not allowed) to make.
I am quite sure a lot of people will have some doubts about Blair's version of the history of the Labour party too, not to mention the peculiar idea that 19th century Liberalism has a part to play in the modern Labour party. You can only look to the 70s if it's the 1870s.
He also mentions the Transatlantic alliance, which is ironic since it was his belief in its importance above all else that led to his duplicitous support for Bush's Iraq war and the ruining of his own reputation. It makes me wonder how far he would have debased himself had he had to deal with Trump.

The Pensions act in 2011 meant she'd have to work another six years. There was no warning of that. Working in a school during austerity ... this becomes an issue because staff are forever being queezed and job positions deleted. Dress it up as you like.

Is she?
Jeez. What's the fucking problem with what you have in your pants?

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/dec/18/why-is-matt-hancock-bringing-bursaries-back-for-student-nurses

At least they are reversing one shitty decision.