Lost Pensions replaced. I lost nearly 8 years of pensions through Government rules, Four and a half for my time in the Navy, the rest through short service of a few years in Government departments, having non-contributory pensions, with no carry over system. I am therefore sympathetic, indeed enraged, when people lose pensions through no fault of their own. So, the Government’s decision to help sounded good until I discovered that the ceiling for recovery was £27,000, In effect, this means that people who pay the lower levels of tax, £21,000, can be contributing to pensions in excess of their own salary. In other words this legislation again can hit the poor in favour of the marginally richer. The folk in Westminster never stop to think, it’s the sound-bite for praise that is important!
Dental Care 250,00 people have lost free dental care under new contracts and the new system seems unworkable. Have you wondered why so many dentists are deserting the DHSS for private practice. There is yet another reason. I believe in all walks of life there is a high proportion of honest people, a small proportion of out and out rogues, and about the same of greedy people. Dentists are no different from the rest of us, and many, I know, feel it their duty to take some DHSS patients, particularly children, and the OAPs, the more vulnerable. There is a strong belief that the government is frustrating the dentists, forcing them to leave the DHSS, through repeatedly requesting small items of information, already submitted years or months before, and requiring considerable loss of time in recovery,. There is no suggestion of malfeasance on the part of the dentists, it is supposed bureaucracy, but suspected to be a means of balancing the DHSS books, as the
money allocated for dentistry would then be transferred back to the general fund.
They want us to lead the World yet again. This time in GM crops. They never stop, do they? This was a Government advisor speaking in the face of great opposition. I don’t know much about GM, I know there is some fear for the future outcome, and the EU isn’t convinced. What I can’t see is, if we sink a fortune into research, who is going to benefit financially. I assume the whole world in the long run if it is a success, but I cannot see a long term return on our investment for us, can you?
I feel we should have a sabbatical from leading the World. For a start I’m not too sure the World looks upon us as its leader, and hasn’t for quite a while. From where I sit, often looking over my shoulder at the past, I find some of our standards are really a little bruised, as they are in a lot of countries that used to rule the World. I love the UK passionately, and I still believe we are pretty bright, probably still unique, but the World has changed, its values are different, as ours are, and we don’t excel in the World’s public eye as we did. Leading the World is pretty expensive, like showing off by hosting the Olympics. That’s a hoover sucking up cash if ever there was, and I can’t see us recouping, it is just another sop to Tony’s ego like the Dome.
Two Foot Notes.
Pregnancy as a solution. It used to be that girls who were unhappy at home got pregnant so they could live in a flat on welfare, it may still be so. It appears that if resources run out for a student, if a girl can get pregnant she will have the wherewithal to finish her degree. I said the World is changing
Organ Replacement. It has been reported that hospitals are so short of organs for replacement they are also using those from drug addicts, with the added risks of hepatitis and HIV.