Fun Online Polls: National Employment Savings Trust & Votes For Prisoners

Thanks to everybody who took part in last week's Fun Online Poll. On a low-ish turnout, we learn that 37% of the readers of this 'blog are retired or self-employed and 30% are already in an employer pension scheme.

Of the ones for whom this is relevant, of the remaining 28% (ignoring 'other'), one-in-ten will "just take the line of least resistance" and allow a percentage of their pay to disappear into a black hole* and nine-in-ten will opt out.

So no doubt this will go the way of all the other bright ideas like 'stakeholder pensions' and so on, i.e. nowhere, the only difference this time will be that there will be ten times as much paperwork.

* As I've often said, the only people I trust less than the government are insurance companies. The ultimate in untrustworthiness is a government-sponsored insurance scheme. For sure, the core function of 'the state', when it boils down to it, is to provide low-cost, universal insurance, but that can be dealt with much more cheaply and effectively using a pay-as-you-go system.
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This whole 'votes-for-prisoners' debate strike me as the reddest of red herrings - what's important is whether the murderers, burglars and rapists are behind bars or not, not whether they are allowed to have flat screen TVs or the right to vote etc. The 'blogosphere seems to be split between 'indifferent' and 'vehemently opposed':

In the 'indifferent' corner we have e.g. Jailhouse Lawyer; Gawain Towler; Tim Worstall; and Leg Iron (the only one to suggest a sensible middle way).

In the 'vehemently opposed' corner we have e.g. Iain Dale; Subrosa Blonde; Archbishop Cranmer; Newmania and JuliaM.

So that's the topic for this week's Fun Online Poll. Vote here or use the widget in the sidebar.