The unfairness was that state pension rates historically did not keep up with either average wages or inflation.
As has been said, the triple lock was designed to gradually rectify that situation over time. Eventually it will have served its purpose.
The trick will then be for governments to encourage (or force) people to pay into private pensions so that the state pension (and benefits payments) play less of a part. But that also depends on how well the economy is doing, and the assumption that most people will have jobs that pay enough to allow them to pay into a private pension - too many do not, thanks to the âgig economyâ.
The reason most people give for supporting assisted dying is the fear of enduring great pain. So it seems absolutely logical to me.
It also makes sense to link social care, though I hadnât particularly thought of it before. For example, the lonely old person sitting staring at four walls, with only the tv for company and waiting to die, who would be happier in assisted living accommodation.
Having just gone through end of life care with my mother the cost of providing a dignified end for everyone is frankly unaffordable and itâs no wonder countless governments have kicked the proverbial can down the road for decades.
It used to be considered dignified to endure suffering stoically. Suffering is not in itself good, or noble, or anything other than rotten, and in itself can never take away anyoneâs dignity: itâs someoneâs reaction to suffering that might be dignified or otherwise, and in any event it is no-oneâs place to judge how someone reacts to suffering. âDying with dignityâ is a slogan invented by those who want to make assisted dying more attractive.
Hospices often use this phrase and having had a close relative cared for in one, I really couldnât agree that euthanasia or assisted dying was on their minds.
If you want to talk waste, look no further than HS2 and other public infrastructure projects.
As soon as companies know a project is public sector they add on several 00âs. I know that engineering companies working on them put hours down to public sector projects that have never been worked. People sitting around doing nothing , but the hours are still charged to these projects.
Yes, sad isnât it. (Click bait stuff as most headlines seem to be today, and then regurgitate what was written last week).
From what Iâm reading and hearing AB, has hit the ground running with social policy, sorely missed by many generations of politicians except during elections. This yearâs budget will be interestingâŚ
But why doesnât happen in other northern European countries. The irish public sector couldnât manage a piss up in brewery but France, Germany, Italy, Spain all seem to be able to deliver large scale infrastructure projects. Itâs about thirty-three years since I took the TGV from Luton to Paris and thereâs still no high speed network in the UK. What a failure.
And I think since the foundation of the Irish State the lazy and incompetent monoglot irish public sector has always turned only to the equally monoglot, incompetent and xenophobic Whitehall. They could avoid accountability by saying âwell the UK did itâ.
The lazy halfwits in the Irish Government, of course, hadnât a clue what was going on. Once Mildredâs pothole was fixed and her vote secured for the next election, who cares about the bigger issues.
The big difference between Ireland and the UK is, of course scale. If you have a problem with HMRC (as many of us have), tough. If you have a probelm with Revenue (the Irish equivalent) you can (as I have on several occasions) get on to the Minister for Finance, with dramatic results
So well done Burnham, emasculate Whitehall and devolve control. But thatâs a big hill to climb, especially with the visionless political dross in the UK now.
Do you know they didnât? Iâd think that any comparison would be next to impossible, given the way which benefits are paid to whom is constantly changing, unlike state pension.
And pensioners are in a unique position, generally having little prospect of any improvement in their financial position.
Have you seen the wonderful Airbus which has just flown 24 hours and 24 minutes nonstop from Melbourne to Toulouse over the Pacific the US and the Atlantic?
The drag everything down. But I guess thatâs what the punters want, misery.