Keir Starmer at it again..

[Del Woppio]

Pensions review (i.e. putting the state pension age up) underway.

Government revives landmark Pensions Commission to confront retirement crisis that risks tomorrow’s pensioners being poorer than today’s

Millions of people could benefit from a more secure retirement as the Government today [Monday 21 July 2025] revives the landmark Pensions Commission to examine why tomorrow’s pensioners are on track to be poorer than today’s and make recommendations for change.

www.gov.uk

 

[AndyWolves]

Teach people about investing too, getting them to make decisions about where their retirement money is invested. The default funds are nowhere near risky enough for 20-30 year olds to be in and they'll be leaving money on the table.

 

[visage]

Re the water companies, the idea that any government should arbitrarily adjust accountancy rules to render a company insolvent so that they can nationalise it without cost would be a staggering abuse of power, and represent the kind of behaviour that would make your average banana republic look like an exemplar of good government.

 

[AndyWolves]

We need PSR for water companies, but they'd probably end up selling their pipes to each other for vastly inflated sums

 

[lemonjelly]

Pensions review (i.e. putting the state pension age up) underway.

Government revives landmark Pensions Commission to confront retirement crisis that risks tomorrow’s pensioners being poorer than today’s

Millions of people could benefit from a more secure retirement as the Government today [Monday 21 July 2025] revives the landmark Pensions Commission to examine why tomorrow’s pensioners are on track to be poorer than today’s and make recommendations for change.

www.gov.uk

might be more a removal of the triple lock etc? They seem to be briefing that future pensions will not be to a similar level as todays support?

 

[Sniffer]

Triple lock not included in the scope of the commission.

 

[Del Woppio]

The obvious answer is means testing the state pension, but we all know how that would go down.

 

[BillyDee]

All benefits should be means tested.

 

[lemonjelly]

sometimes the cost of means testing them is disproportionate.

 

[Del Woppio]

Easy enough to link with tax codes though, that'd catch 90% of the waste

 

[Tredman]

They manage to take away all sorts of benefits for working age people without people complaining about cost/benefit

 

[Templeton Peck]

Re the water companies, the idea that any government should arbitrarily adjust accountancy rules to render a company insolvent so that they can nationalise it without cost would be a staggering abuse of power, and represent the kind of behaviour that would make your average banana republic look like an exemplar of good government.

'Typically, a banana republic has a society of extremely stratified social classes, usually a large impoverished working class and a ruling class plutocracy, composed of the business, political, and military elites.[1] The ruling class controls the primary sector of the economy by exploiting labor.[2] Such exploitation is enabled by collusion between the state and favored economic monopolies, in which the profit, derived from the private exploitation of public lands, is private property. At the same time, the debts incurred thereby are the financial responsibility of the public treasury.'

I mean...

 

[Tredman]

Its also a shit term used by condescending people on both side of the political divide.

 

[Templeton Peck]

Re the water companies, the idea that any government should arbitrarily adjust accountancy rules to render a company insolvent so that they can nationalise it without cost would be a staggering abuse of power, and represent the kind of behaviour that would make your average banana republic look like an exemplar of good government.

We're arresting 83 year olds for holding placards so all bets are off tbh.

 

[visage]

Are they being arrested for holding placards, or for supporting a proscribed organisation?

 

[AndyWolves]

'Typically, a banana republic has a society of extremely stratified social classes, usually a large impoverished working class and a ruling class plutocracy, composed of the business, political, and military elites.[1] The ruling class controls the primary sector of the economy by exploiting labor.[2] Such exploitation is enabled by collusion between the state and favored economic monopolies, in which the profit, derived from the private exploitation of public lands, is private property. At the same time, the debts incurred thereby are the financial responsibility of the public treasury.'

I mean...

That hits pretty close to the mark tbh

 

[Templeton Peck]

That hits pretty close to the mark tbh

Indeed.

 

[Templeton Peck]

 

[visage]

Yeah, thats bollocks. The idea that you can represent the theoretical cost of meeting standards as being a financial liability that then renders the company insolvent is nonsense.

If that were actually the case then the company's auditors would be legally required to include that info in the annual report. The fact that they do not tells you all you need to know about this proposal.

Wanting something to be true doesnt make it so.

 

[Templeton Peck]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1947948497564570041