Disruption -Wednesday 30 November 2011

[Mikey]

Missed it TS.

[Two_Sheds]

It was this:

"MPs have a funded final salary scheme... Mr Cameron - who in opposition described MPs' final salary scheme as "very generous" - replied: "I agree with you that we are public sector workers as well and we should be subject to exactly the same changes we are asking others to take on."

"Lord Hutton's review of public sector pensions did not include MPs' arrangements"

"The 2008 valuation of the MPs' pension scheme found there was a £51m deficit"

source


I don't think a pension is as crucial to a lot of (they're millionaires already) MPs as it is to other public sector workers

[chris]

Well hats off to him, I missed that too. Still, taking no pension from our pot would be better - they should have enough to invest wisely [elsewhere - p'haps boosting the economy?] anyway!

[Potstubsdustbins]

Cloud, Cuckoo & Land seem appropriate if you think that politicians of whatever shade are in the job to help others. All we can do is try to elect the party that allows the biggest crumbs to fall of their table.

Colin

[Mikey]

Well the Italians seem to be making some austere changes if the following comments are true.

Yahoo News
'Italy's government approved tough new austerity measures over the weekend, which will be presented to parliament.
The country's new prime minister, Mario Monti , is hoping the cuts will save the government 20bn euros.
The measures include immediate cuts to the costs of maintaining Italy's bulky political class as well as significant measures to fight tax evasion, Mr Monti said after a three-hour cabinet meeting.
As part of the political cost cuts, Italy's PM said he would forego his salaries as premier and finance minister.'

I wonder if we'd ever see the same commitment out of Cameron & Clegg!!

[Potstubsdustbins]

Ah! but Mikey if I am right he is not a true politician. He is first and foremost an accountant I believe.

[cptncrackoff]

Listening to radio 4 the other night on the way back from fishing I heard a guy who had some sense to say... ' Governments should concentrate on collecting taxes and providing services, leave borrowing, lending, investing to the business industry'.

It was 2am, I was tired, but I agreed!

[Mikey]

Ah! but Mikey if I am right he is not a true politician. He is first and foremost an accountant I believe.

Sometimes that is what we need a moneyman, its not a popularity contest.

Why is it that politicans only make any sense after they no longer have any power.

[Two_Sheds]

Don't they (MPs) all do PPE at Oxbridge now? Philosophy, Politics, & Economics

Then straight into Westminster

[Mikey]

Yeah, its like a child going from school into college and back into teaching, it doesn't work. No life experience, no idea.

[Newton]

Our mp is not Oxbridge. She was in business and before that a children's TV presenter. Her dad is a local builder. Sharp as a knife she is too and does not fiddle her expenses. no chance of the cabinet then.......

Westminster needs balance within the parties as well as across them.

[snohare]

leave borrowing, lending, investing to the business industry'.

I'd agree, Government is after all lousy at details, but there's one problem. That is exactly what they did !
Mrs Thatcher (whom I once voted for) proudly announced the creation of "a self-regulating City of London, free to make money as that sector should".
The repeal of the Glass Steagal Act in 2000 did the same thing in the US, eventually.

We all know how well that worked out...
Once the investment bankers discovered the amounts of money to be made insuring loans to one another (derivatives) - well, the brakes were off for piling up debt, and taking out dodgy loans laden with toxic risks insured by someone else and underwritten by umpteen companies who hadn't a clue what they were underwriting. Financial pass the parcel basically, with a fee at every transfer.
Greed will always take the risk, and if industries were safe to self-regulate then there would be no need for a police force.

[Two_Sheds]

Yeah, its like a child going from school into college and back into teaching, it doesn't work. No life experience, no idea.

I have to disagree with you again Mikey, sorry.
You don't need life experience to be a school teacher, you need empathy with children and a passion for learning.
Our school staff are mostly under 30 (but not all) and were all "fresh out of uni". Brilliant, brilliant teachers they are too.
Some of them can't spell, but hey ho

[Mikey]

I have to disagree with you again Mikey, sorry.
You don't need life experience to be a school teacher, you need empathy with children and a passion for learning.
Our school staff are mostly under 30 (but not all) and were all "fresh out of uni". Brilliant, brilliant teachers they are too.
Some of them can't spell, but hey ho

No need to apologise I'm used to people disagreeing with me, besides its more fun that way.

I would add to my comment that I mean secondary school education rather than primary, the reason for the distinction is that there is only 3-4 years gap between them and what they lack is the life experience needed to separate the working environment with their outside lives.

As a rule they are still single going out on the town, they facebook and twitter, and there is a blurring of the boundary between teacher and friends. This is a recipe for disaster.

This is why I believe a few years outside of the school environment teaches the NQT's life skills they can pass onto their students, which if they don't have their teaching can be very stunted.

[snohare]

No need to apologise I'm used to people disagreeing with me, besides its more fun that way.

God, after reading up on American politics on the internet, it's so good to come to a forum where people having opposing views does not lead to vitriolic abuse and spittle-flecked cant !
This place is truly a haven of peace and logic. It's like coming in out of the storm of unreason.