Thanks to everybody who took part in last week's Fun Online Poll and left comments (none of them idiotic, I'm happy to say), results as follows:
What's the best way of responding to idiot commenters who post personal insults?
Ignore them, but allow their comments to stand - 34%
Delete their comments - 26%
Respond to their insults politely - 24%
Insult them back - 9%
Other, please specify - 6%
So there's no hard and fast rule. It seems to me that a simple warning or two and then subsequently deleting all comments from the idiot(s) concerned seems reasonable. Engaging in tit-for-tat insults is fun but pointless, and from bitter experience, trying to engage these idiots in serious debate is pointless as well, although they sometimes provide raw material for future posts :-)
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Public sector pensions, ho hum, big topic. All things considered, I'm with the government on this one. Public sector pensions aren't the biggest problem facing us - the UK government spends five times as much on corporate welfare - but it's still a problem that will have to be addressed sooner rather than later.
What particularly annoys me is that the government has gone out of its way to explain that only public sector employees currently paid £15,000 or more will have to make the additional 3% contributions (3% is nowhere near enough, but it's a start) but the trade unions keep saying exactly the opposite, that these changes will hit 'low paid hard working public servants especially women' etc etc, I suppose that's their version of the Poor Widow Bogey.
Perhaps this summary is accurate, i.e. that the £15,000 is annualised, so if you work half-hours and are paid more than £7,500, you'll have to pay 3% more for the privilege of your gold-plated, final salary, index linked pension, I don't know. If true, all that does is reduce the number of public sector employees not required to make the additional contributions, fair enough, if you ask me.
So that's this week's Fun Online Poll, do you think today's strike was justified? It's a straight 'yes' or 'no' this week.
Vote here or use the widget in the sidebar.
A simple solution
2 hours ago
5 comments:
Not sure where I am on the LGPS, as neither the gvt nor the unions will publish proper figures on how much people retiring 2020 to 2030 are entitled to - this is where the crunch is.
Hutton was just a load of HMT waffle and the unions are just putting out a load of mind-numbing propaganda.
So having looked at the official statement on the LGPS. Then looked at the official docs on local government demographics, I've come to the following conclusion:
If LGPS members aged 45 to 55 now are going to be entitled to much over the current £4k per annum average (and a cursory glance around the office suggests they might be) then it is in danger becoming a ponzi scheme.
Of course, what is really wrecking everyones pensions are ZIRP and QE, but the unions aren't against that, they just want the magic money tree to cough up 'fair pensions for all'.
I think most Brits would rather have pay cuts/freezes than one or two per cent on mortgage rates to be honest.
SL, surely you won't be retiring until about 2050 or 2060, assuming you stick it out with them that long?
I've sent 2 applications off to the private sector in 2 days.
Not sure I want to stick it out here much longer, especially now all the dumbass environemntal health managers have clicked onto the fact that having proper trading standards people around )as opposed to unqualified part timers) means draining their legal services budget.
Should see the hacky looks they give me! As for 2050, I'm more concerned about oil drying up than the LGPS.
SL, if I may be ruthlessly cynical about this for once, I'd recommend that you keep doing what you're doing until you get such a fearsome reputation that somebody in the 'private sector' makes you 'an offer you can't refuse'. Maybe do a law degree at night school or a black belt in karate or something as back up, you never know if it will be the bad guys or the really bad guys who value your services more.
Oh, and mineral oil doesn't dry up, only vegetable oil does that.
I used to tell a colleague that I'd listen to her complaints about pay twice a year. The third time I'd recommend that she get a job elsewhere.
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