The RANT thread (often contains fruity language)

[Canardly]

Here is a good wheez chaps, lets steal remove everyone's final salary pensions.

Oh and now tell them they are not putting aside sufficient monies for a decent pension. Strewth.

[Beardy]

Here is a good wheez chaps, lets steal remove everyone's final salary pensions.

Oh and now tell them they are not putting aside sufficient monies for a decent pension. Strewth.

You've missed the best bit of the wheeze. We'll tell them for 30 years that they don't need to worry about a pension because we'll take care of it, then we'll tell them 10 years from retirement that we can't afford it so they'll have to make their own provision. to add a little spice to it, we'll also get the government to move the retirement age. Then when they think they are going to be able to make up the difference by working longer we'll really ramp up the performance management process so they can only achieve a satisfactory marking by working 50 hours a week. And then to really screw over any thoughts they might of had for a shorter but at least comfortable retirement we'll change it again 3 years before the cold first retire going back on the promises we made at the first pension review that we wouldn't make any more changes.

Bitter, me? why would you think that?

[Polar Bear]

Here is a good wheez chaps, lets steal remove everyone's final salary pensions.

Oh and now tell them they are not putting aside sufficient monies for a decent pension. Strewth.

This has been happening for at least a decade, probably longer.  Private companies started abandoning FS pensions in the late eighties / early nineties at the same time that they were enjoying Thatcher's payment holidays.  They knew that by putting less in there wouldn't be enough later but they also knew that by taking payment holidays no politician was going to bite them on the arse.

I keep reading the news about the Barclays Bank UK Retirement fund and wondering if I should simply sell my soul to the devil.   However, it looks like they are at least trying to cover the deficit with a medium term investment plan.

[Beardy]

Here is a good wheez chaps, lets steal remove everyone's final salary pensions.

Oh and now tell them they are not putting aside sufficient monies for a decent pension. Strewth.

This has been happening for at least a decade, probably longer.  Private companies started abandoning FS pensions in the late eighties / early nineties at the same time that they were enjoying Thatcher's payment holidays.  They knew that by putting less in there wouldn't be enough later but they also knew that by taking payment holidays no politician was going to bite them on the arse.

This is something that has been discussed in great detail at work, as you might imagine, and to be fair to the companies concerned they were left no real alternative to taking payment holidays as that bastard farther of the original hot pudding who was Thatcher's chancellor (Nigel Lawson) did a raid on pension funds in surplus and promised to continue to do the same. Any company worth it's salt knew that it should be making good while they could, but the tories decided that the monies were better off in its governments coffers. Then the Scottish git who was Blair's chancellor decided that it would be a wizard wheeze to tax pensions dividend payments. Bastard bollocking twatish politicians.

[andrewc]

Here is a good wheez chaps, lets steal remove everyone's final salary pensions.

Oh and now tell them they are not putting aside sufficient monies for a decent pension. Strewth.

This has been happening for at least a decade, probably longer.  Private companies started abandoning FS pensions in the late eighties / early nineties at the same time that they were enjoying Thatcher's payment holidays.  They knew that by putting less in there wouldn't be enough later but they also knew that by taking payment holidays no politician was going to bite them on the arse.

This is something that has been discussed in great detail at work, as you might imagine, and to be fair to the companies concerned they were left no real alternative to taking payment holidays as that bastard farther of the original hot pudding who was Thatcher's chancellor (Nigel Lawson) did a raid on pension funds in surplus and promised to continue to do the same. Any company worth it's salt knew that it should be making good while they could, but the tories decided that the monies were better off in its governments coffers. Then the Scottish git who was Blair's chancellor decided that it would be a wizard wheeze to tax pensions dividend payments. Bastard bollocking twatish politicians.

Yes, I think we have the same employer.  My union are at least making noises about fighting it, though I doubt they'll get the numbers.  Your lot seem to have given up.  If there was ever a time for coordinated action this would probably be it 

[Mr Larrington]

Fear not, for post-Brexit there will be all the overtime anyone anyone's employer could ever want.  Whether you like it or not.

[citoyen]

Fear not, for post-Brexit there will be all the overtime anyone anyone's employer could ever want.  Whether you like it or not.

And the best thing is you won't have to worry with all the tiresome admin of working out how much extra pay to claim - you'll just get the same as you get for doing your contracted hours, keeping things nice and simple for everyone.

[Ruthie]

I've recently read The Ragged Trousered Philanthropist and The Long Loneliness.

We've squandered most of the labour rights gained in the early 20th century and we're back to square one, in so many ways.  Both of those books could have been written today.

With the vital distinction that no young people are reading the Russians, or even Steinbeck - their time is spent on social media instead.

So the next generation won't even have the intellectual ammunition to fight these fuckers with.

It's so very sad.

[tatanab]

Fear not, for post-Brexit there will be all the overtime anyone anyone's employer could ever want.  Whether you like it or not.

And the best thing is you won't have to worry with all the tiresome admin of working out how much extra pay to claim - you'll just get the same as you get for doing your contracted hours, keeping things nice and simple for everyone.

For several years I worked 30% and more in unpaid overtime every year.  Some might call it stupid, but I was greatly involved and absorbed in the work so for me it was professional interest.

Final salary pensions needed sorting out because they were not based on basic salary but on gross salary which included overtime.  In the early 80s, in a big company, I saw falsification of time sheets and people doing ridiculous amounts of overtime, doubling their basic hours or more, even though there was not enough work to justify any of it or even their basic hours.  Yes, that was a fault of the big company, but something really did need to be fixed.

[Ruthie]

I guess you weren't having to find an extra 30% extra in childcare costs then, to sustain your extra working life.

There might have been people falsifying overtime in your particular company tatanab, but it's a bit harsh to wish the current clusterfuck on the rest of us as a result.

[tatanab]

There might have been people falsifying overtime in your particular company tatanab, but it's a bit harsh to wish the current clusterfuck on the rest of us as a result.

As it happens, I reached retirement age this year although I stopped work a few years ago.  I have a number of comparatively small private pensions, plus my state pension.  I could live perfectly well on the state pension alone.  I appreciate that is because I have paid off the mortgage, am single with no dependants and am used to being tight fisted - except when it comes to cycling.

I simply think that the way pensions were earned needed sorting out, in the same way that people these days do not get the huge redundancy payments that they got in the 80s.  I am not saying that the current system is good.

[Kim]

With the vital distinction that no young people are reading the Russians, or even Steinbeck - their time is spent on social media instead.

It's becoming increasingly clear that time spent on social media involves a surprising amount of reading the Russians...   

[Cudzoziemiec]

I've recently read The Ragged Trousered Philanthropist and The Long Loneliness.

We've squandered most of the labour rights gained in the early 20th century and we're back to square one, in so many ways.  Both of those books could have been written today.

With the vital distinction that no young people are reading the Russians, or even Steinbeck - their time is spent on social media instead.

So the next generation won't even have the intellectual ammunition to fight these fuckers with.

It's so very sad.

I'm curious as to which Russians you're thinking of: Tolstoy? Dostoevsky? Zamyatin? Mayakovsky? Or who (and why)?

[Ruthie]

I've recently read The Ragged Trousered Philanthropist and The Long Loneliness.

We've squandered most of the labour rights gained in the early 20th century and we're back to square one, in so many ways.  Both of those books could have beeun written today.

With the vital distinction that no young people are reading the Russians, or even Steinbeck - their time is spent on social media instead.

So the next generation won't even have the intellectual ammunition to fight these fuckers with.

It's so very sad.

I'm curious as to which Russians you're thinking of: Tolstoy? Dostoevsky? Zamyatin? Mayakovsky? Or who (and why)?

Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, and the others that Dorothy Parker read. The writers who inspired the workers of those workers for rights for the poor.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Thanks (but your answer only prompts more questions: Dorothy Parker the American poet? Dostoevsky as champion of rights for the poor? Well I guess that's what decent answers do!)

[Canardly]

Funny how the pensions thing kicked off around the time Maxwell jumped of his boat and yes the Govt has been the biggest pension thief of them all.

https://www.lovemoney.com/news/4133/the-five-biggest-pension-scandals

[Beardy]

I had a friend who's father was a printer. The print shop he worked at was bought out by Maxwell, who promptly emptied the pension fund to repay the money he'd borrowed to buy the business. When my friend's father retired he got 10% of the pension he was expecting thanks to a government compensation scheme.

The irony is that the government created new laws to stop such thefts at the same time as perpertrating the biggest raid on pensions ever undertaken. As I think I might have said earlier, BASTARD BOLLOCKING TWATISH POLITICIANS

[Polar Bear]

There is a perfectly reasonable argument of course that the government should not be supporting private pensions at the wider taxpayers expense.  This I have some sympathy with considering for instance the pensions of such as Fred Goodwin. 

[arabella]

...

Yes, I think we have the same employer.  My union are at least making noises about fighting it, though I doubt they'll get the numbers.  Your lot seem to have given up.  If there was ever a time for coordinated action this would probably be it 

I think we do.  I have raised the Q about conflict of interest (maintaining share price vs. pension deficit reduction).  Funnily enough they haven't yet (to my knowledge) answered.

[madcow]

Here is a good wheez chaps, lets steal remove everyone's final salary pensions.

Oh and now tell them they are not putting aside sufficient monies for a decent pension. Strewth.

Stakeholder pensions were introduced when annuity rates looked half decent. Nowadays they are crap , hence many people putting money into buy-to let.
You get tax relief on the interest payments, an income from day one, capital appreciation and most importantly , control of your asset.
Unless your employer was contributing a wodge into the fund ,then stakeholder pensions were a worse investment than property.
Anyone fancy taking HMG to court for mis-selling on a grand scale?

[Beardy]

ARSE!

It doesn't how many times you've discussed it with x, y or Z or to what depth you, x and y discussed it. X, y and z have moved on and _I_ need to know the detail of it. I'm not looking for a scapegoat, I don't care whose fault it is, I need the information so that I can access just how BIG a crock of shite I'm now holding. Stop with the blame avoidance tactics and tell me how deep it is embedded in your journeys.

Ok, so maybe he was being circumspect because he's on the train, and you can't really talk in detail about user authentication protocols when surrounded by the great unwashed, but really, do you really need to keep trying to not be at fault quite so blatantly?

It's difficult being a blunt Yorkshireman with overtones of techie related aspergic tendencies when trying to extract information about why it's broken from a marketing leaning politically savvy colleague, no matter how well you get on.

[Ruthie]

Thanks (but your answer only prompts more questions: Dorothy Parker the American poet? Dostoevsky as champion of rights for the poor? Well I guess that's what decent answers do!)

Dorothy Parker the founder of Catholic Worker. Dostoevsky etc looking at ownership/labour in new ways.

[Ruthie]

Thanks (but your answer only prompts more questions: Dorothy Parker the American poet? Dostoevsky as champion of rights for the poor? Well I guess that's what decent answers do!)

Dorothy Parker the founder of Catholic Worker. Dostoevsky etc looking at ownership/labour in new ways.

God, this happens more and more. Day.  Dorothy Day. The book’s right beside me! 

It’s beginning to get worrying 

[Cudzoziemiec]

Thanks (but your answer only prompts more questions: Dorothy Parker the American poet? Dostoevsky as champion of rights for the poor? Well I guess that's what decent answers do!)

Dorothy Parker the founder of Catholic Worker. Dostoevsky etc looking at ownership/labour in new ways.

God, this happens more and more. Day.  Dorothy Day. The book’s right beside me! 

It’s beginning to get worrying 

Well, they were both from New York... But I hadn't heard of Dorothy Day and she sounds interesting.

[David Martin]

Dress codes at funerals, I mean WT something rude or other?!

Funerals have a dress code by default.  Subverting it seems perfectly reasonable...

Non-compulsory dress code for my funeral is going to be "Something that would have amused Kim".  Cycling kit is positively encouraged (and not unusual for cyclists' funerals).  The only thing that I really care about is the no flowers rule though.  Bloody things have been the bane of my life and I don't want people wasting money on them on my behalf when I'm dead.


Anyway, what mrcharly-YHT said.  Best approach to alcohol at funerals seems to be to find a suitable infirm old lady - perhaps of an Irish persuasion - and ply her with it in exchange for increasingly amusing anecdotes.  Like the man-inna-kilt at weddings, most families have one.  It's a tradition, or an old charter or something.

Failing that, find some small children to entertain.  They don't want to be there either.

I want a cardboard coffin and a big pile of sharpies so folk can write a farewell message (like 'Do not return to sender' or similar witticisms. A biohazard symbol and 'burn before opening')

And folk can wear whatever they want - I won't be bothered.