Rescuing
Democracy in the United Kingdom from our current Elected
Dictatorship
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Spin,
not face-to-face confrontations with the voters, is the
Government's chosen method of communication. Ordinary people
are dangerous. Ordinary people might ask a question which
throws a politician 'off message'; the Cabinet member might
reveal himself or herself to be a human being like us, and
not a programmed android. Worse still, he or she might tell
the truth.
Ann
Leslie - Daily Mail, September 16, 2004
Blair
wants to leave his mark on history - looks more like a stain
to me.
Peter
Thorndyke, Diss, Norfolk - Daily Mail, May 23, 2005
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Britain
has traditionally been one of the biggest net contributors
to the EU because we do not get as much money back from
Brussels in farm and regional subsidies as our rivals.
According
to Treasury figures, between 1995-2002, Britain's average
contribution taking the rebate into account, was £2.6billion,
or £43.55 per head of population.
The
French - the biggest recipient of farm subsidies - contributed
£1billion a year or £16.08 per head of their
population.
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Why
Pension Credit 'can't be sustained'
By
Paul Eastham - Deputy P0litical Editor - Daily Mail, May 24, 2005
Labour's
benefit for the elderly is 'unsustainable' because it is destroying
the incentive to save, says the Government's pensions supremo.
The Pension Credit, a flagship scheme, will 'severely interfere'
with the desire of many to provide for themselves, he will declare.
Countdown
to pension crisis
Alex
Brummer - Daily Mail, May 24, 2005
The
idea that an overhaul of Britain's pensions muddle will
have to wait until after the next election irrespective
of the recommendations of Adair Turner's commission, boggles
the mind. Piecemeal changes made to pensions almost always
make matters worse. Yet Gordon Brown and his advisers
are adamant that no root-and-branch change takes place
until there is national consensus and cross-party support
for reform.
Take
the vexed issue of the Pensions Protection Fund - the
shining new measure passed in the last Parliament that
is intended to protect the rights of future retirees in
companies which go belly-up. Its a great political sticking
plaster which will keep protesting, naked pensioners off
the beach at Labour's next party conference.
But
as the credit rating agency Standard & Poor's point
out, over a normal cycle the levy of £300mn a year
imposed by the PPF is likely only to cover 25%-50% of
expected claims. The consequence of this is that the pension
funds of healthy companies may well have to come charging
to the rescue of badly-run corporations in receivership
like Courts and MG Rover.
At
a seminar organised by the Centre for the Study of Financial
Innovation, S&P suggested that the trustees of pension
funds are building trouble for themselves by not pressing
the sponsoring company to pay off deficits.
By
allowing the deficits to accumulate the trustees are in
effect making pension funds a creditor of the sponsoring
company. The deficits,£85bn in total, currently
represent 13% of the net asset value of 340 schemes examined.
For most, this 'investment' in the sponsoring company
is the biggest single bet the fund has made.
The
degree to which the pensions landscape has changed since
1997 is clear from a survey by Hewitt Associates. It has
found that for the first time there are now more defined
contribution or money purchase schemes open than the traditional
final salary plans. So far these defined contribution
schemes have accumulated £2bn in assets, which Hewitt
says is a big advance.
The
telling figure for the Turner Commission is that less
than half the employees entitled to join a defined contribution
scheme bother to sign up. As a result half the workforce
in these companies will have no private pension to look
forward to and the liability falls back on the taxpayer.
The Government is starting to sound a little like late
Labour Prime Minister James Callaghan who infamously said
of the collapsing pound: 'Crisis, what crisis?'
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Around
two-and-a-half-million claim the payment out of 5.5 million who
are eligible. But Adair Turner, head of the Government's Pensions
Commission, warns that Britain cannot end up with more than half
of its 11 million pensioners on means-tested handout.
It
tops up the income of a single person by a minimum of £109.45
a week or £167.05 for couples. His warning follows pensions
industry calculations that anyone earning less than £30000
a year might as well not save directly and let the state pay up
through mean-tested benefits.
What
is more, if Gordon Brown tries to fix the problem by compelling
workers to put a chunk of their income into a pension scheme,
Mr Turner believes there will be a huge political backlash and
some will even give up work rather than pay it.
Mr
Turner was asked by Tony Blair to come up with radical ideas for
ensuring the State pension system remains affordable despite the
rapidly expanding elderly population. The former CBI director-general
is to publish his final report this November.
Ministers
were already jumpy about what Mr Turner will come up with. He
revealed another controversial proposal at the weekend - suggesting
that the middle classes could be banned from receiving their basic
State pension until 70, while the working class could still claim
it at 65 because professionals survive on average five years longer
after retirement.
But
the Government will be even more uncomfortable about his criticism
of the Chancellor's tax credits. It is understood Mr Turner will
argue that the Pensions Credit is deeply flawed because it rises
each year in line with wages inflation, pushing it steadily ahead
of the state pension. As a result it is pulling ever more pensioners
into means-testing and deterring them from saving.
Mr
Turner gave a sneak preview of his view on the pension credit
in a private address to the National Association of Pension Funds
last week. He said: "The long-term consequences of continuing
with present indexation plans are not sustainable. We cannot end
up with a system in which over half of all pensioners are means
tested in retirement without that severely interfering with the
system of earnings-related pension provision."
A
Pension Commission source said: "If you try to solve this
by means of compulsion there will be a problem because people
who are already only 5% to 10% better off in work will possibly
opt to get out of it."
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