Whoever wins, will pensioners lose?
In the midst of trying to enjoy as much of this week's sunshine as possible one problem kept cropping up. Which would-be MEP would get my vote on Thursday?
The scandal of MPs' expenses in this country may be nothing to the murk which we all know surrounds the expenses and spending of MEPs. So far they won't agree to divulge what's been going on but the revolution for honesty in politics has begun in the UK and I'm hopeful it will roll all over Europe like a rogue wave coming in just when the members think they're safe leaving many of them floundering in the wash. We simply don't like MPs lining their pockets anymore.
I read this week that anyone elected as an MEP could be fairly well guaranteed millionaire status within five years. A UKIP member for Europe interviewed on television this week admitted he got 200,000 a year, but quickly said that that was expenses. So it isn't taxed.
He'll be well on his way to millionaire-hood. He stressed his expenses were the same as everyone else, maybe a bit less. I'm not one of his constituents so I can't estimate whether he deserves such a fine wage or not. I know one of our local MEPs Jim Nicholson works his socks off and is well respected by farmers and fishermen. But that's about the extent of my knowledge of our local European members.
Mrs Dodds looked pretty on her posters but after hearing a lengthy question and answer session with listeners on radio I got bored since she seemed rather fond of repeating herself. But it wouldn't have been fair to judge her on the sound of her voice.
We won't know until Monday who has won by which time that rogue wave may have whipped Gordon Brown off his feet leaving British politics drowning in uncertainty.
Anyway, I tend to vote these days as a baby boomer would – for the people who are sympathetic to the older generation who've got such a raw deal over the years. Since the Ulster Unionists have thrown their lot in with the Conservatives I'm wondering where that's likely to leave the likes of my age group, recently retired with savings earning a pittance.
Already this Labour Government has pushed up the pension age for men and women from 65 to 68 – all this to happen gradually from 2024 to 2046. And there's worse to come. Those with occupational pensions, this Government and the Tories think, should get less state pension. So in will come means testing for those who've worked all their lives for a decent pension only to find they've wasted their time.
No one actually says how much the occupational pension has to be before they lose some of their entitlement to the state pension which they've also paid for. But Labour's record of fleecing pensioners (including myself) in 1997 when they removed the tax breaks on dividends brought catastrophe to private pensions. At that time Gordon Brown was Chancellor and he was aided and abetted in the deed by none other Ed Balls who Brown, but no one else, wants as the next Chancellor.
David Cameron has even hinted he may scrap the pensioners' winter fuel allowances should he win the next election. The Tories have never liked it anyway and opposed it in 1997 when it was introduced. Labour hasn't gone down this road yet but we can be sure they'll claw back that money in some other way if they win again though their chances aren't looking good. So one suspects that no matter which party wins the next general election pensioners will be paying through the nose.
Either of these moves – means testing for the state pension or removing the winter fuel allowance - will represent the ultimate betrayal of pensioners many of whom are finding it extremely tough in the present economic climate.
These are policies coming from politicians who've got rich off the backs of taxpayers and won't do the decent thing and resign. Rough waters are ahead for us all and I see no lifelines on the horizon.
Everest conquered at last
They didn't give up after not managing to climb Everest first time round but Ulster adventurers Lynne and Noel Hanna succeeded the second time in their charity raising effort last month. I first met Lynne some years ago when she was the glamorous manager of the cosmetic company Clarins in Northern Ireland.
She was wonderful at that job and when we spoke about her ambitions with Noel who was then her boyfriend I knew if anyone could do it she could. I'm sure when she was selling her first lipsticks for Clarins she never believed she would get to the top of the world. But the pair became a formidable climbing team and their love for each other was clearly the driving force of that ambition.
They've raised a fantastic 150,000 for the Ulster Cancer Foundation an amount which will probably fund an entire research project for at least three years.
They could rest on their laurels but knowing Lynne I doubt if she will sit back.
Celebrating my sisters
The last of our 40th wedding anniversary celebrations were at the weekend and the occasion has given me time to reflect on all those years when I started married life with the grand sum of 5 and not even a sofa to sit on. All through those years one of my rocks has been the support and love of my sisters.
Himself would say there wasn't just two in our marriage since he had married `a family of strong-willed women'. Sisters are always there when you need them, they're the shoulder to cry on, great company for lunch or a night out, the helpers when you're sick, the font of all wisdom about men, the people you can trust with your innermost secrets. When my phone rings I'm always delighted when it's `the sisterhood' at the other end. Two of them were my bridesmaids and the younger of the two and I had lunch in her garden this week.
The sun was out and we had a lovely two hours together asking ourselves where all those 40 years had gone. Life has turned out differently for all of us but that's part of the richness of our collective relationship. My niece thinks we're `a cool bunch'. I like that.
Shop until you drop
The expenses scandal is never ending. According to the Daily Telegraph revelations Nigel Dodds allegedly claimed 974.95 for the purchase of seven tables for his designated second home in Kennington, south London where he currently claims 1,540 a month in mortgage interest payments.
Meanwhile SDLP's Eddie McGrady appears to like the luxury life in London with one night allegedly spent in a luxury hotel where rooms cost up to 315 a night.
Mr McGrady, who stays in hotels and doesn't have a second home in London, is reported to have unsuccessfully tried to charge 2,500 for laundry, food and telephone bills. He admitted this was a genuine mistake. For 315 a night I'd be looking a maid – in his case a butler, and champagne – thrown in. Of course there is no suggestion that any Ulster MP broke parliamentary rules with their expenses claims.
I think the most daring claim of all came from a Tory MP who asked the Commons fees office to pay him 2,000 a month from his MPs' additional costs allowance 'until it's exhausted'. In that year he went on a spending spree decorating his home, buying expensive bed linen and paying thousands of pounds for maintaining his garden. Newspapers haven't made such entertaining reading in a long time.
Who'll cast stone at borrowers?
I never knew that Christians are biblically forbidden from suing each other.
This little gem reported in the News Letter this week came from Rev Derek McKelvey of Fisherwick Church speaking at the first meeting of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church since the debacle over the huge losses of the Presbyterian Mutual Society in which hundreds of people had invested their hard earned money.
The Society had loaned 85m to property developers and 26m to buy-to-let investors, the two biggest problem areas in the PMS finances and at the meeting a director of the PMS Rev Shaw Thompson implored those who had borrowed the money to resolve the Society's troubles and pay back what they owe.
I suspect many of those borrowers will sleep easy in their beds after hearing Rev McKelvey's pearls of wisdom. After all they must have had some Christian leanings when they approached the Society in the first place for money to build their land banks and buy-to-let properties.
Who amongst the cash-stricken lenders will cast the first stone and sue them?
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Tuesday 14 February 2012
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