George Osborne is to announce that the retirement age for men will rise to sixty six. Am I happy about having to work an extra year? Most definitely not - but I do understand the reasons behind having to. George has been forced into this situation by Gordon Brown's massive pile of debt. The debt has to be paid off, or we will never recover from Labour's disastrous and incompetent spending frenzy.
On my sixty fifth birthday I will wake up and thank Gordon Brown, not George Osborne, for stealing away a year of my retirement. But I will go to work willingly in the knowledge that I will be doing so for patriotic reasons. If by working an extra year I can help the country get back on it's feet - then so be it. If by working an extra year I can improve the future for my children and grandchildren - then so be it.
I served in the Navy for sixteen years, and I will see this extra year as one more for the country. But I will NOT forget Gordon Brown.
10 comments:
"I will work an extra year as a patriotic duty."
Bravo Steve... and I will continue to smoke, drink, eat full English breakfasts and have unprotected sexual congress with Lithuanian Pole Dancers... in the hope of reducing the future pension burden for Dave. Hopefully, many more will follow our patriotic example...
;)
Harry,
keep up the good work. It's all for the kids:)
Very well put.
We need to remember who caused this and make sure these mistakes are never repeated.
Perhaps the extra year of work should be known as the "Brown Year"
CF,
I had similar thoughts about what to call it. I think you have got it right. "I'm doing my Brown Year" will become a common phrase.
I have lived through Wilson, Callaghan, Blair and Brown's attempts to govern this great country of ours and, I despair every time the British electorate vote for a Labour Government. The outcome is always the same, job losses, inflation, loss of confidence in sterling, all blamed on any new incoming Tory administration. Surely the electorate will learn, sooner rather than later, that a Labour Government is usally bad for the country as a whole and benefits no one other than those with snouts firmly embedded in the trough. Mind you there are enough on both sides of the political divide with big snouts who will continue to see it as their right to maintain their profligate ways with our money. I'm already working an extra year, just hope I actually reach retirement healthy enough to enjoy some part of it.
I wonder if this will apply to the public services too and their golden index linked pensions? Be nice if it was a level playing field for once.
Meanwhile down at the golf course the 65 year olds look forward to their retirements, play golf daily for 3 months, then spend their time looking around for a job because they're bored shitless.
The bigger question is, when 40somethings are considered too old by many companies, how to keep people in gainful employment up until their 66th or even 65th birthday.
However I did laugh when BBC politics interviewed some snot attitude 20something and she got indignat saying she'd already worked more than enough of her life already...
Travis
I appreciate the sentiment of this post and agree where the blame lies.
If I were in formal employment I'd gladly work the extra year — after all, it's only one, not five or ten, and by that stage of life it's just a tiny fraction of one's adult life.
As it happens, I recently turned sixty, so it looks as though I am too old to be included in the new scheme, should it be implemented.
Hello John,
I'm forty this year. That means I've worked 24 and I have 26 left.
Not half-way yet. That's depressing!
The one thing I want to know is... with all these Chavs and Pensioners that George Osborne is going to put in gainful employment... are there going to be enough jobs for those who WANT to work?
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