June 2008 Archives
Pension black hole
Posted by Julie Voyce on June 6, 2008 10:39 AM
HERE is a true horror story: the black hole in the UK's public sector pensions. This colossal hidden deficit will starve British industry of investment and impoverish the wealth-creating portion of the economy for decades to come. While New Labour likes to talk about equality, a vast gulf is opening up between the retirement rules and provisions in the public and the private sectors. And the private sector has to fund the lot.
More than 5m state workers participate in open final salary pension schemes; thanks to the decline of defined benefit occupational schemes, only half a million private sector workers are members of plans that remain open. Local and central government run their schemes for National Health Service workers, teachers, the civil service, the army, police and fire service on an unfunded basis. This means none of these vast liabilities is provided for in national accounts.
Contributions are not saved and invested, but spent. This is far worse off-balance-sheet hanky- panky than that carried out by the banks, which have been so heavily criticised by the prime
minister for shoddy accounting.
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On The Beat: Chesham NAG
Posted by Julie Voyce on June 16, 2008 12:51 PM
Chesham Neighbourhood Group (NAG) held their second meeting on Tuesday, June 3 at the Chesham Town Hall and laid down plans to tackle anti-social behaviour.
Looking into actions that were set in the first meeting, the NAG identified key causes of public disorder in the neighbourhood.
Gary Blackburn, the local Neighbourhood Specialist Officer (NSO) said: "The main concern here is to stop underage drinking and alcohol related disorder. The same will apply to the problems associated with mini motorbikes."
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And Another Thing: Understanding the data
Posted by Julie Voyce on June 16, 2008 12:53 PM
OVER the last few weeks the Advertiser and Examiner has printed a number of letters about public sector final salary pension schemes. Many are from members of the public evidently scanning the web and regurgitating data which they obviously don't understand and thus comment inaccurately and out of context. Thus your paper is nurturing a theme which is deviating from the truth.
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Local Pride Can Save Us From Fall!
Posted by Julie Voyce on June 26, 2008 3:42 PM
By Mary Schwartz
DRIVING through Chalfont St Peter this week, I have been stirred by real feelings of local pride as I am saluted by the army of white flags lining the terraces of Gold Hill shopping parade.
These flags appear every year to mark the feast day of Saint Peter and Saint Paul on June 29, as a warm celebration of our village’s namesake. They decorate our communal sense of local pride and you do not have to go far to experience the friendly welcome of shopkeepers or to see The Greyhound’s chalk board advertising their “You’ve Got Talent� competition this coming Thursday. This promotional evening, hosted by one of Chalfont’s liveliest pubs and the hubbub of much local socialising, is a fun, light-hearted way to celebrate home-grown talent and personality. Such evenings promote local community spirit and I feel privileged to have grown up in an area with such charisma and charm.
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This page contains an archive of all entries posted to Bucks Bloggers in the June 2008. They are listed from oldest to newest.
May 2008 is the previous archive.
Many more can be found on the home page or by looking through the archives.
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