Aaron

Well wikipedia puts the M4 supply at just under £1.5 trillion in 2007. Since then they've printed another quarter of a trillion in QE. Inflation is now at 5.4%, which is ridiculously artificially low. I can't afford to pay into a pension, so I have no idea how people of a similar age in unskilled work would. And any pension people did have is now worth alot less than it should be.

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2011/12/07/average-savings-down_n_1133308.html?ref=uk The Bank Of England stole 25% of pensioner's savings with it's quantitative easing.

Does your employer not contribute?

Just about to be shaved off

Both the government and private sector grossly overestimated what returns they would get on their income, they both fell with glee on the supposed wealth being created by the banks and they both failed to take into account the rising cost of pensions as people lived longer. so you agree there is no money to fund the pensions you expected, looks to me like you guys are in the same boat as the rest of us I think the difference is that the public pensions, like alot of other things like the wars, are deficit funded. So the money never really existed anyway; they just can't afford to borrow to pay it anymore. Private pensions are a personal investment. There's a fine line between 'investment' and 'gambling', so if they don't work out like you hoped then that's bad luck. That's very different than being promised one thing when you start work and having that changed after dcades of service. I'm hoping everyone can stay undivided by this and finally stand up for themselves. Just watched a panorama program about PFI funded hospitals & schools, etc. It's such a con! Buy now because you dont have the cash and let your children pay the mortgage on them. Win an election or 2 in the mean time. Make your cronies millions in the process. Government could just print more money to build hospitals, and remove the new money from circulation via taxation. But that's not in their interest.

Ding ding ding! Funny how a royal wedding bank holiday doesn't hurt the economy, but a days strike does when they want th eprivate sector workers to get angry.

They could see what was going to happen; They designed it that way. And if you work for the mafia then it should come as no surprise when you become the victim of extortion. What I don't understand though is why everyone argues over what the other side should do. Public vs Private sector. Why should I care if the public sector strike? If they get what they want then good for them. Should I get angry that it will disrupt my day? Well it's par for the course when you have a government that holds a monopoly on public services. Maybe those workers should just not work in the public sector? Well yes. But that's easier said than done when there are millions unemployed - mainly due to government oppression via taxation, regulation, and interferences like minimum wage laws. People should complain less when others want more than they have. How about wanting more for yourself? I don't think unions should have legal protections. I don't think that the state should manage public services like education, etc, but they do. So if it's not right then people's beef should be with the state, not their fellow workers. And to blame this on the housing bubble is nuts. Government functions on borrowed money. Politicians are interested in the here and now, and borrow in the hope that it'll be someone elses shift when it's time to repay. If they had any interest in sound fiscal policies rather than their own interests then we'd have a war tax right now. Sure, bubbles bursting cause liquidity problems; but the point is that the UK is insolvent, and based on an economy of fraud that creates bubbles. Banks, evil as they are, aren't the real enemy. Public sector strikers aren't the enemy. The state is. Things will NEVER be any different as long as everyone is happy to delegate the management of their lives to a few rich public school boys, who will continue to run the country into the ground at the behest of their corporate masters.

Was that the front letting go?

You seem to be making an exception for that politician in your avatar. An American politician. Yes. I qualified the exception here: It should be when this guy is a contender for leadership of the worlds superpower: ">

Oh yeah, I don't disagree. I've just come to understand, in my humble opinion at least, that the powers that be would have everyone blame each other before the main culprits. Benefits claimants, immigrants, muslims etc. In the 30's it was the jews. I'm trying to get everyone to realise that hey are libertarians at heart

Not slating your suggestion Techno, but how about they use the NI contributions the pensioner's have made for decades to fund their own heating allowances? Too simple? Ofcourse. I just mention it because I've gien the subject alot of though over the last few years and I reckon, even though we get the spongers sponging, that we should resist te bait to blame each other and remember to focus on the real people that are wasting your tax.

Anyone else watching it thinking it is the greatest tv ever made?

Thanks for that. I don't think they had the whole thing on the BBC (might have done on the red button).

Being delayed a bit means you'll have better weather for training : ) There's nothing worse than waking up in a muddy hole at 05:00 in the morning, and changing out of your dry clothes into your wet clothes after beating your trousers against a tree because they've frozen solid

IMO, there are at least 2 faces to that issue. One is related to what we've been talking about. Another is also related but less directly - the government that takes your money and pisses it up the wall also grants banks a unique privelage of being able to create new money out of thin air. Now we've been through this before, so I won't again; BUT.... the price of houses is limited by the availability of credit, and people's ability to make payments on that credit. So a main reason you struggle to afford a house is simply because government allow banks to create new money. If it didn't then developers would have to sell their houses at much more reasonable prices.

Sweet. Glad to know you learned from the mistakes those stupid old f**kers made when they thought that paying national insurance contributions was to plan for their own future. Now you'll be able to crank the thermostat up at christmas time and cackle with glee at the nievity of the old codger next door, currently slipping into a coma, while comforting yourself with a night of Bob Geldof and poor malnutritioned black people on the box, feeling proud to be British

Presumably, then, if we ever start eating out of rubbish dumps in this country you'll decide that suddenly politicians stealing your vote, and stealing your money, IS actually bad? You're telling old and vulnerable people who've had their vote stolen by deception, and their money - which they've been paying as tax for decades - stolen, that they should stop their whinging and die with a stiff upper lip because there's someone thousands of miles away that's worse off? Last year there were over 23000 more deaths than usual during that cold winter we had, and you're telling them now to stop whining. That's what i call utter bollocks. Hopefully when you're an old man you'll be forgotten and alone in a cold house every winter. Then you can feel content in the knowledge that somewhere, someone else is more f**ked than you are. What a hero.

Well everybody moans, and then they still vote. Every few years millions of sheep pile into a booth and put their seal of approval on a fake performance that only serves to give the illusion of democracy while condemning them to further indentured servitude. Then when I explain why I don't vote, because it's worse than a waste of time, all of the crazies suffering stockholm syndrome come out of the woodwork with "People fought and died so that you can vote, blah blah blah", which is utter nonsense. If you vote you can't complain. **edit** having said that - I'd vote for Uncle Ron if I was eligible. But the difference there is that he want's to all but dissolve government.

Well that just won't do..... Here's another Carlin snippet; just because he rocks. "Forget the politicians. The politicians are put there to give you the idea that you have freedom of choice . . . you don’t. You have no choice. You have owners. They own you. They own everything. They own all the important land. They own, and control the corporations. They’ve long since bought, and paid for the Senate, the Congress, the state houses, the city halls, they got the judges in their back pockets and they own all the big media companies, so they control just about all of the news and information you get to hear. They got you by the balls. They spend billions of dollars every year lobbying . . . lobbying, to get what they want . . . Well, we know what they want. They want more for themselves and less for everybody else, but I’ll tell you what they don’t want . . . they don’t want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking. They don’t want well informed, well educated people capable of critical thinking. They’re not interested in that . . . that doesn’t help them. That’s against their interests. That’s right. They don’t want people who are smart enough to sit around a kitchen table and think about how badly they’re getting f**ked by a system that threw them overboard 30 f**kin' years ago. They don’t want that. You know what they want? They want obedient workers . . . Obedient workers, people who are just smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork. And just dumb enough to passively accept all these increasingly shittier jobs with the lower pay, the longer hours, the reduced benefits, the end of overtime and vanishing pension that disappears the minute you go to collect it, and now they’re coming for your Social Security money. They want your f**kin' retirement money. They want it back so they can give it to their criminal friends on Wall Street, and you know something? They’ll get it . . . they’ll get it all from you sooner or later cause they own this f**kin' place. It’s a big club and you ain't in it. You and I are not in The big club. By the way, it’s the same big club they use to beat you over the head with all day long when they tell you what to believe. All day long beating you over the head with their media telling you what to believe, what to think and what to buy. The table has tilted folks. The game is rigged and nobody seems to notice. Nobody seems to care. Good honest hard-working people . . . white collar, blue collar it doesn’t matter what color shirt you have on. Good honest hard-working people continue, these are people of modest means . . . continue to elect these rich cocksuckers who don’t give a f**k about you. They don’t give a f**k about you . . . they don’t give a f**k about you. They don’t care about you at all . . . at all . . . at all, and nobody seems to notice. Nobody seems to care. That’s what the owners count on. The fact that Americans will probably remain willfully ignorant of the big red, white and blue dick that’s being jammed up their as*holes everyday, because the owners of this country know the truth. It’s called the American Dream cause you have to be asleep to believe it..."

George Carlin (RIP): "I have certain rules I live by. My first rule: I don't believe anything the government tells me. "

Unlucky mate. When I did mine I got 8:10 (in boots - you didn't specify) and at the time I was running 5 miles in 35 minutes as my usual routine at home (35 minutes (in trainers) on a reasonable day - otherwise I was a little over). So as you have a few months now you've got plenty of time to get it cracked. The cold air over winter now is going to be pretty harsh on the lungs, so by the time slightly warmer february comes round you'll have a bit of a psychological advantage there too.

If you're gonna do P coy then a 1.5 mile run at 9:18 is the least of your worries 1.5 miles is short enough to sprint the whole way, so just do it and they won't mind if you're a wreck afterwards. Infact they like that. When I did the 3 day PRMC I was far from the fittest. In fact I was probably well into the bottom half of the course in that sense. Even so, out of 50+ candidates I was among the 12 that made it through. P Company can give you the fitness if you want it, but guts you have to bring yourself.

I take it, by referring to 'ponzi', you mean Fiat (paper money) currency?. I expect most wouldn't know who Charles Ponzi was!. I have the odd investment here & there, the main thing at the moment is to stay out of debt imo. Ponzi as in pyramid scheme. ** edit ** facilitated by fiat, yes.

I forgot to say that you need actual physical gold - in your posession. Not paper gold. If you get paper gold all you'll end up with when you need it is paper. It's also easier for government to confiscate it.

Yeah, i look alot younger than I am. My mum's skin. The face hair hair balances it out a bit. I think i am significantly underpaid because of that, but on the plus side when i eventually manage to bribe my girlfriend into letting me pick up a 19 year old on a saturday night I'm all sorted ; )