Star Trek

Have to say I can see both sides and I cant see a huge Uturn or anything like that. But silently accepting all the Gov is suggesting would be a Very Bad Thing, so while we wont get them to change their minds on everything, seeing an angry nation is going to encourage them to tread very carefully as time goes on. A very good thing considering Conservative history. Not mentioning Lib Dems as they have mostly been as good as a chocolate fire guard.

Yeah they changed pension age here too from 65 to 67, no protest no nothing

I think its gone up here by 8 years. Not sure but its a fair chunk. That and for some their pension will actually be less than what they had been origionally told it would be. So from a personal perspective of all those affected it understandable there a little miffed. Its also on top of the Gov doing their best to destroy the NHS (again), people loosing jobs left right and centre, the cost of living rising steeply while wages are at a freeze and the Gov doing all this to reduce a debt they have so far failed to reduce even slightly.

And I havent even mentioned housing, social care or student fees.

All in the name of reducing the defecit.

Yeah I blame the baby boom generation :

Well I'm not sure I could condone your final remark as representative of the whole nation - but broadly speaking you are correct in your analysis.

However, the Euro should not be judged as monopoly money. It is weakened by Irish, Portuguese, Spanish and Greek involvement. It is strengthened by German, French, Dutch, Scandinavian and Italian presence. It was a mistake to mix these differing economies.

It breaks my heart what is happening in Greece and worries me where it is all going. This country (and particularly Athens) was the cradle of western democracy (and civilisation). Without Greece, and more specifically 5th Century BC Athens - the world would be a very different place.

However, early 21st Century AD Athens is a quiet different place.

Greece is bankrupt and has been for years. The billions of Euros they are getting as a bailout package is to help them repay debts they have already incurred! The poor old French and German banks are effectively registered charitable donors when it come to the Hellenes.

They are most unlikely to ever see their money again.

Greece is run on alice in wonderland economics. It has a public sector three times the size it needs. These people are reasonably well-paid considering how little they actually do. And anyway their wages are being paid not by other Greek tax-payers - but by the poor old German taxpayer. The mind boggles...

Much the same can be said for Ireland, Portugal and possibly/probably Spain.

These countries just are not productive enough and pay themselves way too much. They think because they are part of the EU they deserve the same standard of living as the Germans, Dutch or Danes - all of whom are productive nations with sound economic structures.

Who knows where it will all end? In the case of Greece - if it does all go tits-up - I hope it won't mean a return to the period of the Colonels which some of you may just be old enough to remember ...

I've never liked the idea of the Euro.  And now some want to make it even worse with single global currency.

Who are you talking about though?

I don't support the teachers' position - and many teachers don't either (I have several friends in that profession).

In order to have a repesentative strike you need more than 50% vote from a more than 50% turnout of membership - which let's be frank never happens.

The Union leaders piss me off big style.

I agree with them about the rich bankers who have screwed the economy big style - and if I had my way many of the senior banking 'offenders' would be in prison; but I completely disagree with their views on pensions etc.

They are talking about their own members. This is a section of society - not the general workforce.

What the hell is so special about the public sector?

Take two examples Mr Smith and Mr Jones who live next door to each other. One works in the public sector - the other in the private sector:

Mr Smith gets up, has breakfast, goes to work, does his (public sector) job, comes home, relaxes, watches TV, goes to bed etc.

Mr Jones gets up, has breakfast, goes to work, does his (private sector) job, comes home, relaxes, watches TV, goes to bed etc.

What is the bloody difference?

There is none. They both have jobs. Period. They both work for a living - and during times of recession and austerity everybody should be glad if they are still in work - especially the public sector lot. My own experience of the public sector in the UK is that the standard of the workfocre is of a lower calibre than the private sector. Public sector workers are often not nearly as capable and many wouldn't actually get jobs in the real productive economy.

So why do we (including me) have to pay towards their pensions when they don't pay towards ours (and mine) in the private sector?

It doesn't add up - isn't fair - and not only should be reformed, but in all but a very special cases, tax-payer subsidised public sector pensions should be abolished in my view.

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BTW in my other previous post I mean to say the Euro should not be judged that way. The Euro is merely what the US Dollar was in the late 1800s (and still is). It is a common currency to cover a large geographic market. It was a good idea but is failing because of its weakest constituents. Take out the weak economies and it would be a very strong currency. Any currency superseding the Deutschmark, French Franc, Dutch Guilder etc, is a money unit to be reckoned with.

And I say all of that as a Brit who is still happy with the £ sterling ...

Stealing and taxation are two different things. You can equate them all you want if you wish, doesn't make them identical.

A hundred years or so ago these disturbance in some parts of the world would have led to an otherthrow of the government and lining up the greedy sons of beaches who had the most wealth up against the wall where they would have been promptly shot. Nowadays, we've gone to the other extreme, the extremely wealthy who got that way manipulaitng one rule of society or another are lauded as fearless entrepenuers, and anybody who dare to question the good that they have supposedly bestowed is labeled a heretic against the capitalist religion. So even an advocacy of a five or ten percent increase in the tax rate for the rich is thought of as an unjust manifestation of hatred toward those poor innocent souls.

Lining them up against the wall may not have been right, but letting them rob us blind as a supplication to the god of capitalism also strike me as a bit extreme. At the very least, lets try and think clearly about what has gone done, particularly in regards to the lending sector of our societies. 

Now, are there people that are corrupt and use government to ensure their success?  Of course - look at GE, etc. to coerce goverment officials to pass laws to help them and hurt their competitors.  That's wrong and should be addressed.  But.... those are two different subjects.