Government plans reform of pension income rules

jamesd

gadgetmind wrote: »

I guess we can at least take a little cheer from the fact that they're now suffering for their stupidity!

I'm not sure I understood your point. Perhaps you could clarify?

gadgetmind

Both.

I dislike all religions and those who pander to them, which is why my major charitable donations go to the National Secular Society and the British Humanist Association.

System

Humanism is a religion.

This report from 2008;
"The OCR exam board planned to become the first to include the subject alongside six major religions in its draft GCSE syllabus.

But its proposal was rejected by Ofqual, the exams regulator, which ruled that humanism was a "body of belief" and not a religion.

The British Humanist Association (BHA) described the decision as a "kick in the teeth" and is seeking a judicial review."

rpc

The BHA seem to disagree:

http://www.humanism.org.uk/humanism

Daniel_Elkington

Organised religion is the same as any group of people who band together to promote their shared vision. There are plenty of companies that do that. Maybe the money might be better off with a local hospice trust or something.

Drawdown simply doesn't work any more because too many people are using it for the wrong reason. They've got sucked into the idea of 'choice' when their choice is only slightly less limited than the guy with the annuity.

I remember a discussion on Yes, Minister:

"People don't really want a choice between which local hospital to choose, they want good healthcare. We offer them a choice rather than delivering what they actually want."

And it is very true, at the moment we have several options, none of which really work because some idiot decided to bail out the banks by getting the nation in debt, and mitigating said debt via this quantative easing mechanic which drove down gilt yields and !!!!!!ed up the pension decumulation cycle. The same idiot who sold all our gold when it was at it's lowest value ever (if we'd have kept it and was selling it now the crisis would be over) http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/finance/thomaspascoe/100018367/revealed-why-gordon-brown-sold-britains-gold-at-a-knock-down-price/

Indeed if we sold all that today it would fetch around £14,100,000,000. Browny boy sold it for about £2,500,000,000. For what reason that time? Oh yeah, to bail out the banks.

It seems that some idiot has been constantly pilfering our coffers to bail out the greediest !!!!!!s amongst us whose own misadventures in financeland have got them into trouble.

National debt in Q1 2012 was about £1.2trn. Issuing more gilts at the time would have meant our national debt would be about 1.5Trn now, but we would have 14trn in gold, in fact we could sell off half of it and pay off all our debts and host another olympics just for fun.

Sorry, best get off that soapbox now, it's getting a bit slippy.

Most of the bankers I have met have been good honest folk who want to go back to 60's banking. Why don't we shoot the cowboys and get the sheriffs back in charge.

Spiderham

Daniel_Elkington wrote: »

Most of the bankers I have met have been good honest folk who want to go back to 60's banking.

Sorry but what does this mean (60s banking)? Have to agree most bankers I know are also nice people, but 60s banking to me brings up images of elitism, nepotism and casual sexism shrouded in mystery owing to slower transfer of information. Nowadays people find out about more and I have to say that banking seems to be extremely meritocratic.

Daniel_Elkington

3-6-3 - Pay depositors 3%, Charge Debtors 6%, tee off at 3pm.

Anyone non-standard gets interviewed and individually assessed.

Basically implement the ideas presented in the Vickers report - ringfence retail banking so that people who go to a bank end up banking their money and not losing it in some myriad scheme where you don't know were it's going.

Out of all those bad things you've just mentioned, how many of them don't apply today? You would be surprised how many people at the top are related and male.

Also a meritocracy is elitist, that's the point.

Old_Slaphead

Daniel_Elkington wrote: »

National debt in Q1 2012 was about £1.2trn. Issuing more gilts at the time would have meant our national debt would be about 1.5Trn now, but we would have 14trn in gold, in fact we could sell off half of it and pay off all our debts and host another olympics just for fun.

Think you're getting your billions and trillions mixed up.

National Debt £1 trillion +

Gold (if not 75% sold off) about £15 billion

gadgetmind

Clifford_Pope wrote: »

Humanism is a religion.

I could disagree at length, but perhaps the key thing is that humanists don't harbour irrational beliefs in sky fairies, magic underpants or Thetans which is good enough for me.

And yes, the JWs have stopped knocking on my door.

Daniel_Elkington

Oops, sorry about that clear !!!!-up, them soap boxes sure are slippery fellas