Reply to: UK's borrowing requirements (warning X rated - not for faint hearted )

[cailin maith]

My apologies. In fact, now that you mention it, let me just have a look at this User CP thing....

Sorted!

Fab, isn't it?

[expat]

Folks - so many of us now have cybertory on ignore, could people do us a favour and refrain from quoting him? The whole idea of ignoring him is so that we don't get annoyed by his drivel - if you quote him, we still see it.

Thanks

My apologies. In fact, now that you mention it, let me just have a look at this User CP thing....

Sorted!

[TykeMerc]

Folks - so many of us now have cybertory on ignore, could people do us a favour and refrain from quoting him? The whole idea of ignoring him is so that we don't get annoyed by his drivel - if you quote him, we still see it.

Thanks

Amen.

Now if the admins would just ban him it would save us from him being quoted by people who haven't totally lost patience with the moron yet.

[Cyberman]

Well that is a load of Bollux by any standards. Public sector pension liabilities have always been unfunded, and no government has suggested changing that. That is not New Labour's doing.

It is true that keeping unfunded pension liabilities off the balance sheet would be illegal for a company, but what would you suggest they (Tory and Labour) should have done?

1. Fund the pension liabilities? That would have required, well, Funding. Which would have required taxation. Just be glad you didn't have to pay more tax, to fund the pension liabilities.
2. Declare it on the "balance sheet"? A meaningless action: the government has power of taxation, which a company does not. Therefore the government can guarantee to meet these liabilities, whereas a company could not. They are not the same thing.

Labour had the chance to confront the unions and to get retirement ages changed but backed down a couple of years ago when faced by strikes. Police and fire service staff can retire at 45 I believe on a full pension and others can retire much younger than those in the private sector.

Labour has reduced the value of private sector pensions via the stealth tax since 1997 forcing people onto money-purchase pensions from salary-linked.
Private sector pensions are funded via investments, but public sector are funded through taxes(25% of council tax is for pensions!!), and the figure projected is clearly unsustainable.

The public sector should fund their own pensions through salary deductions, the same as we do in the private sector, and benefits should be based on the value of those investments as in the private sector. With pensions paid regardless of investment or investment performance we are heading for disaster.

A strong Tory government has to fight the unions over this or we(well others anyway!!) will all be in poverty, working to fund other people's pensions.

[PM-Junkie]

Folks - so many of us now have cybertory on ignore, could people do us a favour and refrain from quoting him? The whole idea of ignoring him is so that we don't get annoyed by his drivel - if you quote him, we still see it.

Thanks

[expat]

Look at those unfunded public sector pension liabilities. That is the biggest chunk of all and shows massive negligence by New Lie.

Well that is a load of Bollux by any standards. Public sector pension liabilities have always been unfunded, and no government has suggested changing that. That is not New Labour's doing.

It is true that keeping unfunded pension liabilities off the balance sheet would be illegal for a company, but what would you suggest they (Tory and Labour) should have done?

1. Fund the pension liabilities? That would have required, well, Funding. Which would have required taxation. Just be glad you didn't have to pay more tax, to fund the pension liabilities.
2. Declare it on the "balance sheet"? A meaningless action: the government has power of taxation, which a company does not. Therefore the government can guarantee to meet these liabilities, whereas a company could not. They are not the same thing.

[gingerjedi]

[BrilloPad]

I don't know what he said but I expect it was

Northern Rock, Winter of discontent, Not under Maggie, Interest rates should be 0%. My pension is big, my house has gone up 10% slurp slurp

oh and

You peeked didn't you!

[Bagpuss]

I don't know what he said but I expect it was

Northern Rock, Winter of discontent, Not under Maggie, Interest rates should be 0%. My pension is big, my house has gone up 10% slurp slurp

oh and

[Cyberman]

Look at those unfunded public sector pension liabilities. That is the biggest chunk of all and shows massive negligence by New Lie.

[Solidec]

Always a fan of market oracle. Author stays out of politics and just reports on the finances, which is a pleasant alternative to most of the mianstream media.

£3.5 trillion is indeed a frakking SCARY number, and to be frank its unmanageable, if we EVER got anywhere near that figure, Britain would be bankrupt, there really is no way out of that amount of debt.

I will be leaving my foreign assets as are, and NOT investing in anything Sterling for the time being, infact may well open a dollar and a euro account and keep ALL spare cash reserves ou of sterling.

[HairyArsedBloke]

As Guido said yesterday, "over £14 million an hour, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week."

[DimPrawn]

Gordon Brown said awhile back that the UK was best placed within the G7 to weather a recession.

So I'm not worried.

[MPwannadecentincome]

oh good I'm expecting some dollars to come to my bank account and the exchange rate when it hits will be in my favour!

[Doggy Styles]

Have we won back our title of Sick Man of Europe? It's been 30 years and I've missed it.