Evil Diaries: Goodbye To This Dame Nuisance

Unfunded fun: I and my wife get £800 per month each from the state simply because we are old. However, although there would be a riot if these pensions were not paid the fact is that they are not a liability of the state. The intention to pay is merely renewed each year by the government of the day.

The position of unfunded state sector pensions is quite different. These are a liability of the state just as a gilt redemption would be. As I type, the obligation of the state on this account is £2,300,000,000,000 (this exceeds the annual income of the state which now stands at £2,000,000,000,000) and there isn’t even a brass farthing in the bank to pay it off. It is a cost contracted by the state on our behalf by politicians.

I have always warned my children that this is a recipe for a real disaster and that they should prepare for a state that can only afford a vastly reduced old age pension. Therefore they must fend for themselves right now.

Incidentally, it is worth noting that in effect allowing annual net immigration of 500,000+ to continue might produce a lot of taxed earnings of such immigrants. These sums are material and, as highlighted earlier, not to be overlooked.

As for the “triple lock” being in force, words fail me. This is straightforward bribery where the bribe is paid by the bribed.

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The bandwagon gathers pace at Natwest with some bold jumpers on calling for Dame Alison Rose to be sacked (after all, we the taxpayers own c. 40% of these ghastly woke wallies). However, we should surely not confine ourselves to mere money. We should demand that this fake dame be stripped of her title. Do not forget that one of her predecessors, Fred Goodwin, got stripped of his knighthood for bringing disaster to the bank through the acquisition of ABN Amro about seventeen years ago.

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Book reviews: I urge older readers and those who cannot trip down memory lane to read Charles Moore’s second (of three) volume of biography of Margaret Thatcher. This is titled Everything She Wants and is a truly scholarly work enhanced by sound political commentary and wit. At £30 it is not the cost of an nice cream but it is really good value.

Elsewhere, my brother, who snuffed it just before last Christmas, published A New Zealander In Oxford by George Cawkwell (our father) who departed this world at the age of 99 in 2019. It is £15 on Amazon and is ideal for those who love the following:

Pre WWII New Zealand, fighting the Japanese in the Pacific, excess drinking to compensate the unavailability of sex, Rugby Union both as an All Black triallist and a Scottish cap, the ancient classical world, philosophy, logical thinking and how to make an Oxford college succeed. George clearly did that. Oh! I almost forgot that he also briefed Margaret Thatcher and she, a politician to her tips, flattered him. He almost fell for it.