Left Foot Forward post here today by Will Straw reminds me of the annoyingly catching ditty in this title.Will’s argument is persuasive that Cameron’s state pension reforms will have a disproportionally negative impact on the poor. The continued huge range in life expectancy between rich and poor by geographical areas in the UK should also still enrage all Progressives. Why is there this near 13 year difference in life expectancy between Glasgow City and the Royal Borough of K&C?
In the comments at Will’s post there was I thought a pretty pertinent aside by “Roger” on the state of the very poor in our society and our willingness as an society to condemn and blame the victims for killing themselves unlike wealthier counterparts?
“This reminds me of Charles Karelis’s “The Persistence of Poverty.” The basic argument is that the wealthy misunderstand the mental state of the poor, which leads them to make conceptual errors when creating policies to address poverty, or, in this case, obesity. Think of a bee sting, he advises. If you have a single bee sting, you’ll go buy some salve to take away the pain. Now imagine three bee stings, a sprained ankle, a burn, a cut, a crick in your neck, a sore throat, and arthritis. Does the bee sting matter anymore?”
15 comments:
tory government by the rich for the rich
can anyone name a tory shadow cabinet member who is not a millionaire
Lets make nurses and policemen etc work longer, for less pay, no pension and face privatisation (just like hospital cleaning was privatised)
Its CLASS WAR !
But as the Socialist Party would say no difference between Labour and the Tories
Yeah
Get Real
look at Hammersmith, Barnet and Essex
look at Birmingham Social Services Department
Point #1 - Did n't Gordon Brown tax pension dividends?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6521305.stm
(some say this black hold lead to the collapse of the final salary and many of our UK companies are burdened with pension deficits)
---------------------------------
Point #2 - Just look at the injustice of pension protection. If a big PLC goes bust. It is the state that has to pick up the bill. A director may well be responsible for the collapse of the company (just look at some ofthe banks). Yet 90% of the pension their multi-million pound pension is protected. But people lower down are protected at 90% and not 100%.
Sadly, we live in a country where we big bosses get rewarded for failure....
Hi anon 2
1. The pension tax on dividends was not helpful but has made little or no difference to the decline in DB schemes. Pension holidays, poor governance, wrong accounting standards and selfish employer short sightedness are the main causes.
2. I agree that there is injustice in pensions but not sure that you are right about this? The pension protection fund is supposed to be paid for by a levy (backed by the government - hopefully. I also thought that pensions in payment are all protected 100% but it is deferred pensions that are reduced and I thought "capped"?
Hey John, where did you ge the figures mate? Are they scientifically correct? There is a 40% movement (on average) of people within the same big city and populations are not static. I, for example, lived in Kensington for 10 years when I was in my late teens early twenties (with parents) but then moved 4 times to different locations within London. I would imagine this is a common thing? So would I drop dead at 83 or 65 as I now live in South London? Know what I mean.. lol..
Nick
still hate the nasty tory party
I can't wait for next May and we get this waste of space government out. Anything will be better even the group from the last Big Brother would do a better job!
Hi Nick
Check out the link to Will Straw at Left foot forward. I have come across this theme elsewhere as well. If you take the district line out of Westminster the life expectancy reduces by one year for each underground zone you pass (or something like that) The key feature is your place of birth. K&C does have pockets of deprivation but many kids are born to wealthy families unlike Glasgow City and that (wealth) is all important in determining life expectancy.
I suspect that like elephants (so Disney told us) richer folk come home to die? So you might get some young K&C babes moving out to groovy on the edge boroughs such as Newham or Croydon but when the time comes to draw upon Daddies inheritance they return to the serviced apartments and private health care of their birth.
Such is the everyday life cycle of so many united left activists....
Hi Anon 20.23
I don’t think so – neither does Nick - so it must be true!
Shocking statistics after 12 years of Labour
Hi Anon 21.52
There is a long way still to go but much to be proud of so far.
How many Tory millionaires are there in the shadow cabinet? Who cares since they were elected... this Governemnt has a PrimeMinsister who was never elecetd to his position and this Government has more peers in it than at any time since McMillan was the PM. Half the foreign office Ministers are in the House of Lords? and of course we have Lord Mandelson of Foy in the County of Herefordshire and Hartlepool, First Secretay of State and Lord President of the Privy Council and Secretary of State and Business and Secretary of state for inmnovation and skills - completely unelected? Give me an elected, legitmate millionaire any day over this sham of our democracy.
class war now
smash the rich
how many people died as a result of tory privatisation of hospital cleaning
how many people have bad teeth because of the tories getting rid of the nhs dental service
how many of our boys will die in afganistan when they cut the MOD budget
and get rid of 40,000 teaching assistants
when murdoch destrys the BBC we wont even have a balanced press
just like Italy
just how many pro Tory papers do they want
ask Mr Ashcroft Tory Vice Chairman
unelected
Tory backer living in Belize
look at Labour's record...it speaks for itself. ten years in office... country bankrupt.
Hi Anons
How 13 ministers in the Tory shadow cabinet went to Eton?
...and the Country is hardly bankrupt. If the Tories got in and cut, cut cut then we would dive into a depression. Labour has the best economic policies and the tories simply do not.
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