SCREWING PENSIONERS

If any people out there with strange interests have downloaded this title because they think it refers to the sexual antics of the elderly, may I suggest you think again and try elsewhere! This Post is about politicians. Specifically how the Tory-Liberal Democrat Coalition has behaved towards pensioners and the retired poor in general. It’s therefore likely to be highly critical in nature so if you’re one of those people who, like the Greens, the Lib Dems and some in the Labor Party who think that more hard earned British taxpayers’ money should go in foreign aid handouts to various hell holes around the world, places like Pakistan, Bangladesh and Somalia where it’s only too often used for such educational purposes as terrorist training instead of being given to our elderly people back home or to young British boys and girls who all too often work in poorly paid jobs, then you too can think again. Alas many of our politicians are inclined to minimalize the plight of our pensioners and young, only shoving them up the promises list when election time comes round. And where the elderly are concerned, those they fancifully called the silver vote, think they’re just a bundle of oldies who can eventually be bought off on the equivalent of what a small handful of billionaire tax avoiders squeeze out of the Inland Revenue on an annual basis.

In broader terms I’m talking about people that our politicians so much like to talk about these days. Those ordinary hardworking people! A phrase that so easily rolls off the lips of David Cameron and his acolytes in Government. Oh yes, those ordinary decent hardworking people who worked hard all their lives and regularly put away a little money for their later years, hoping it would guarantee them a little comfort. Hoping to earn a little interest on their savings from the banks and building societies, and with the assurance companies hoping to top up their pensions and add to any state pensions they got. A bit extra to help pay the gas and electricity they need to keep warm in Winter and cook them warm meals. But oh dear, haven’t these utility prices just gone through the roof in recent times under the warm hearted supervision of jolly Lib-Dem Energy boss Ed Davey!

Yes, a little interest from their savings and a decent state pension would together see them alright!

So let’s see what they actually get, these decent folk who’ve worked hard all their lives to make profits for others. Alas it’s not what our politicians would like them to have, that is if they hadn’t themselves stuffed the economy by allowing the banks to almost bankrupt the entire country with their huge losses and fabulous executive bonuses which the taxpayers are all having to pay for… or allowed the Inland Revenue to miraculously find itself somehow unable to collect around 150 billion in taxes owed by multinational companies and billionaire individuals. That’s 150 billion that could have gone into the economy to pay for far better state pensions, get rid of the crushing fees students have to pay and go to pay a Living Wage for millions of young people and adults earning peanuts these days in one of Europe’s worst ever cheap labor economies. One hundred and fifty billion that the rich don’t pay in taxes courtesy of George Osborne’s Treasury!

Sorry you decent people who worked hard all your lives. We just can’t pay you more because the country’s in debt! Oh dear, oh dear, we’d really like to only we can’t! It’s a well-known well-rehearsed story trotted out year after year. Cast your mind back. Don’t you remember hearing it from politicians when you were a kid!

Okay then, how about the bit of extra they earn in interest on the money they saved all their lives?

Alas, it’s another case of whoops, sorry! Has anyone checked out the interest rates lately? Well if for some reason you haven’t then let me tell you that someone’s making a killing and it doesn’t look like it’s you! The rates SAVERS get is on average is currently well below 1% and it’s been like that for years. In fact it varies between point three to point eight of 1%. In a word, PEANUTS. Now tell me, what percent do you think the bankers and building societies make when they loan out that hard earned money you saved as mortgages for house buyers? Well, while you get peanuts in interest they loan YOUR money out at between four and five percent! In other words they’re making a packet out of the money you’ve got with them on deposit and giving you jack in return, courtesy of the Bank of England which under Government instruction keeps the Bank interest rate at rock bottom.

Now just think of it and all the shit that Government politicians talk about how much they love savers! Half of one percent interest for the mugs who worked hard all their lives but certainly not half of one percent for the bank and building society lenders! LENDERS OF YOUR MONEY THAT IS! Oh no, they give mortgages to house buyers at close to ten times the rate that you’re getting my friend. In other words the decent hardworking people now retired ARE BEING SCREWED BLIND by the finance houses and the politicians behind them!

Oh yes, how we love all you decent hardworking people who saved up that money all your lives for us to lend out to another bunch of arse-holes who we also get to screw! That’s because screwing is our business you see!

It’s as I said in the title… SCREWING PENSIONERS. And that’s the appalling thing really. By calling you decent hardworking people then screwing you blind what they’re actually doing is taking the piss, and that’s because they know there’s nothing you can do about it. You can’t change the interest rate because they’re the ones who set it, not you, and there’s no point shopping around for something better as no doubt so many of you have tried because they’re all at much the same level so they’ve got all your hard earned savings and they’re lending it out like the bankers they are, meanwhile giving you just about nothing in return. Now that’s what I call plain open contempt and they know it. And not only do they know it but they don’t give a stuff. And quite frankly why should they. With a little help from their friendly Coalition Government they’ve got all you decent hard working savers by the balls!

And while they’re screwing you with their interest rates they’re likewise screwing you with the State Pension you’re getting. Now what was that big increase this year on the Basic State Pension? Was it two quid a week or was it two fifty? Sounds kind of princely if you’ve lived all your life in a plant pot but for all the pensioners in the country taken together it’s the equivalent of what a few billionaires with HSBC accounts in Switzerland save on their annual tax bill, courtesy of their friends in the Inland Revenue that is! One or two percent a month for the retired hardworking people with the cost of living still way over the rate of inflation. But then I suppose that doesn’t matter as long as George Osborne comes on television and tells you you’re far better off than you ever were before! He well knows that flattery will get him everywhere and that’s because the Silver Vote has become too old to be angry. It wants a quiet life now because it thinks that it’s earned it.

If George Osborne and his Liberal Democrat friends in Coalition tell you that you’ve never had it so good then that’s good enough. You’re too old to be analytical and critical. It’s much easier to blame everything on the noisy fun loving young. After a long life of hard work and saving you’ve bedded down in the mud and that’s where you’ll stick! Let others make all the noise… only they can’t because they’re all fighting just to survive and those who sink wind up in the underclass with problems they can’t handle, mainly because they come out of broken family situations and were never brought up with moderate example. Hence their inevitable journey onto the Jeremy Kyle Show which, by the way, could really do with some serious success stories. Like long time happy, stable, successful marriages and family success rather than endless boozing, drug taking and serial adulterous shagging. Good successful examples from those decent hardworking folk who’ve worked to live a decent straightforward life would be good for the Show. Be a matter of pride for the elderly to take with them on their journey despite all the difficulties they still have to bear.

You always know when we’re coming up to an Election in Britain. It’s the time when Government politicians regularly come out with statements about how well the elderly are doing. You can hear them boring you on BBC television on an only too regular basis. Look at how well the elderly and pensioners are doing. Putting it into your mind that they’ve been looking after you specially in recent years! But then they’re politicians! You know, people who ask five grand a day for their services helping business interests under the radar, as Jack Straw recently said. Five grand a day ex-Government Ministers and two quid a week for you if you’re lucky!

Nice work if you can get it but most definitely not for the decent hardworking poor!

The decent hardworking poor are only there to be laughed at. Exploited by the banks and finance houses who give them peanuts and treated with contempt by the politicians who put themselves up every five years and tell them they have to act responsibly and safeguard the economy. Safeguard their handful of friends more like, not the once hardworking folk now retired and unable to use heating full time along with the millions of others who aren’t paid a Living Wage and for whom it’s either heating or eating.

But then, when these people look at you, they silently know what you are, so don’t bother spouting your bullshit on television and tell them how well they are doing.