Thursday 6 September 2012

John’s Blog N0 92 – Pensions

I am at a loss for words this week or have run out of them, having exhausted all the points on pensions and in danger of repetition, if not already done so, and will therefore review recent events. The total Olympics are almost over and apart from the hype and media attention, the several main points stand out; first of all that investment paid off if measured in medals, although the worrying thing was they were the same people as at Beijing and also the pop idol presentation of these athletes. The other aspect was that we can still get things done, make decisions and take instant action, the facilities were built to time and cost and rapidly in today’s timescales; when the Security firm failed to deliver (surprise, surprise) there was a quick response of Army and police. All sensible anti- terrorist measures were taken, including the unpopular deployment of missiles, etc. Why does this attitude not apply to the rest of the major decisions and action we all know the Country needs?. We did it in the past and as recently as sixty years ago after WW2, when much of our infrastructure had been destroyed, but we did not spend years discussing what to do, who not to offend and how to do it. Common sense prevailed, it was obvious what needed doing and we went ahead, planned thoroughly and made it happen, even though we were in worse debt than we are now. Pre-fab housing was built, meant as temporary and still in use today, their much superior modern counterparts are available cheaply today and could be readily and quickly erected on any available spare land, at the bottom of the garden for grown up children, who can no longer afford to leave home. Education and exam results remain unresolved, the goal post were moved during the match, why not restore them now and sort out the problem sensibly and fairly for the future. Exam grades are higher but this is because the children are brighter and better taught, the levels need raising but not overnight. Why not leave the experts to decide, the teachers, they know their pupils best, cut out the rat race of who’s best and let them do the job we spent a lot of money training them to do and to agree standards with the exam boards. The list is endless, with health “managers” dictating to consultants, doctors and nurses, measuring everything in monetary terms and wasting fortunes in the process with little account of social and local needs, known best by the hands on staff. In all areas of State, Local Councils, Transport, Welfare, Charities etc.: draconian across the board Budget cuts are made without commonsense or freedom of action to decide best areas, resulting in short term easy decisions. The third Heathrow runway raises its head again without a coherent Transport or growth policy, can we afford to continually expand the South East. Airports are a blight and should be placed where they can do the least harm, with transport links built to suit. London apparently needs a new airport and the Thames Estuary is a good place to dump one, I was born in that area and it needs as much revamp as the East End. Let’s get on with it, not wait for an election but treat it with the same urgency as the Olympic Park and the same time scale, the Romney marshes have little to lose and transport links are already quite good to Greenwich, can be extended with even a fast ruver hovercraft service. There is also talk of closing the Olympic Park for two years for modifications, why? Everything is there, let’s turn it into a Sports Academy, leisure and events centre and build on what is there to encourage youth activity. The immigration fiasco continues, hard working citizens and students are to be deported, because they haven’t the right documents or the Authorities failed to check, who was attending lectures. Meanwhile we debate what to do with rogue landlords who exploit and harbour illegals and how to detect them; a couple of night surveys with heat seeking cameras would soon find the sheds, garages and overcrowded attics. Meanwhile the Banks continue to absorb billions of pounds, meant to stimulate the economy, but not passed on to Business, infrastructure investment or the house buyer, money sorely needed to promote growth and employment; used to bolster losses, mis-selling and bonuses. It is time to stop talking, get off our backsides and get on with what we all know needs doing, following our Victorian ancestor’s example.

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