PENSIONS

The pension deficit for local councils in England and Wales could hit £60bn this year according to the Lib Dems.

Apart from a firm case of NSS there are other important factors about this.

Firstly - Like the misguided FRS17, this does not mean councils are going to go bust. Don't panic. The defecit figures are a snapshot based on one particular day and that valuation of shares, bonds etc held by a pension fund versus if every single member of that pension fund retiring that day.

What this does mean is that there will have to be siginificant shifts in the portfolio value to pay for those who retire.

Which leads me to-
Secondly - the fundamental flaw in civil service pensions. They are protected by law, which means that there needs to be an act of Parliament before any siginificant change to provision can be applied.

Which means you and I pay for it, either through cut services or higher tax bills.

This two-tier system has been flawed for quite a number of years and I have blogged about it in the past.

The State can no longer give such gold plated schemes to non-income generators - ie: they spend the money we give them, they do not generate the income of the country.

State-employed wages have rocketed in the past 13 years and the original excuse of poor wages versus life service can no longer apply. Sure there are still lowly paid council workers but there are lowly paid private workers - why should council workers get better deals?

GIVE ME STRENGTH

TV character Peppa Pig will be seen wearing a seatbelt in future episodes, after parents raised concerns over children following her example.

Oh give me strength it's a cartoon which originally decided against putting seatbelts in because it would restrict movement in the CARTOON. Surely parents can enforce seatbelt wearing...oh...

But [Astley Baker Davies] reversed its stance after a parent complained that her daughter had refused to wear a seatbelt because Peppa did not.

Sheesh

STAR WARS BURLESQUE

I make no comment...


More here

BEER

Sigh, so the Tories are going to war against high volume alcohol. As others have blogged extensively about this, I won't but I will say one thing -

Exactly how does a nanny-state confer responsibility to the individual? If someone wants to go out and get bladdered that is their choice as long as it's legal surely?

I am having a hard time reconciling the ideals spouted by Cameroon with what is actually coming out from his party.

I want a party of smaller, more efficient state. I want a party that will treat adults as adults. I want a party that will let me as an adult make my own decisions for myself and my family and I want a party that allows for upward mobility and chances and not one that drags every one down into a serfdom, tucking its forelock to those that "know better".

The only thing I can see about voting for Dave at the moment is that he is not the disaster zone that is Brown.

6 MAY

According to foot-in-mouth minister, Chris Bryant. the election will be 6 May, the same date as the local elections

Is that a Nokia I can hear breaking?

h/t tory politico

Sharp eye parrot

kitten wallpapersparrot pictures

SLEEPTALKING

Courtesy of Dizzy alovely blog where a wife posts her husband's sleep mutterings including:
"Oompa loompas don't sing in heaven. They tidy up the clouds."

"Legs time! Everybody get your legs!"

See here!

GORDO's BOTTLE

I am amused by the latest revelations from Former Labour General Secretary Peter Watt that Gordo bottled the election.

Not only did they have 1.5m leaflets printed but had a fleet of limos circling Parliament Square to whisk ministers away to campaign.

However, anyone who was in the village or knew people in the village in 97 have their own stories to tell about the farce that was the election that wasn't.

For instance I know of at least four PR professionals who had already started being paid retainers and had been granted absence of leave for the election.

Also there was one poor constituency that was ordered the morning of the expected announcement to ditch targetted leaflets and posters that had costed them £100,000 to produce.

And that constituency happened to have a cabinet minister as its MP!