I have never understood why pensioners had to buy an annuity to give themselves an income in the last years of their lives.
In fact after hearing Adrian Chiles talking about his ideas for pensions, I vowed that unless it was a capital offence, I wouldn’t buy one!
So George Osborne did the honest thing and has made it that no-one will have to buy one any more. It’s all reported here in Citywire. Here’s the summary.
The government has unveiled a landmark overhaul of pensions drawdown and has abolished the 55% tax on pre-retirement pension withdrawals, meaning no one will have to buy an annuity.
From April 2015 people will be able to access pension savings as they wish at the point of retirement, subject to their marginal rate of income tax, rather than the current 55% charge for full withdrawal.
This had two immediate consequences.
Insurance company shares dropped as reported here in the Guardian.
George Osborne was put on a stop list of those, who aren’t entitled to buy insurance.
But well done George, as he also put the tax up on fags, although he was gentle with beer and cider.
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March 19, 2014
Posted by AnonW |
Finance & Investment, News | Pensions, Smoking, Tax |
1 Comment
The phone-in on BBC Radio 5 this morning, is about David Moyes and his tenure at Manchester United!
I have been following and watching football for sixty years and I can name probably ten or even twelve very good or great managers, whose successors had problems. Those at the top level, who were followed by one who was equally good are extremely rare and the only one I can name is Bill Shankly at Liverpool.
But it’s not just in football, that the succession is a problem. Look at Kings and Queens, politics, Presidents and prime ministers and business leaders!
The only rule that seems to apply is that the more charismatic the leader, the bigger the problems.
So all those angry Manchester United supporters, should just remember than David Moyes’s problems are par for the course. Especially, when they have the example of Matt Busby.
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March 19, 2014
Posted by AnonW |
Sport, World | Football, Management, Manchester United |
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Like nearly everybody in the world, I’d like to get to the bottom of what happened to Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370.
But this page on the BBC’s web site has gone to town with speculation.
So what can I add to the speculation?
According to the /BBC report, the plane flew over the Malay Peninsular. C and I drove through that area on a military road that goes from one side to the other and there was miles and miles of jungle, where we thought we could hear elephants in the distance. One Malaysian doctor told me that they check cars in and out on that road, as there are accidents, where drivers his elephants sitting on the cool tarmac in the night.
So is it a place, where if the plane came down, could it just be lost in all the trees? I won’t speculate further than to ask the question!
If you read aircraft accident reports, as I used to when I flew a lot, you realise that pilots make quite a few silly mistakes, that you’d think they wouldn’t. Who’d have thought for example, before the Costa Concordia disaster, such a thing could happen to a cruise liner, in sight of land on a clear day.
So did the crew make some catastrophic mistake?
In most cases pilot suicide can surely be ruled out, as it would have to be almost a double suicide, unless one pilot had locked the other out of the cockpit and then perhaps shot himself.
We’re obviously left things like the plane exploding and breaking up, but things get more and more fanciful.
One of the problems with any of these theories is that the plane was still transmitting information back to London for seven hours.
Only when we find the plane and its black box recorders, will we have any chance of finding the truth!
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March 18, 2014
Posted by AnonW |
Transport/Travel | Flying, Malaysia, Malaysian Airlines |
3 Comments
It is being reported in the Telegraph, that Jack Warner took a bribe of over a million pounds to vote for Qatar in the bidding for the 2022 World Cup.
I file stories like this under the heading of Is The Pope A Catholic
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March 18, 2014
Posted by AnonW |
Sport | Bribery, Football, Qatar, World Cup, World Cup 2022 |
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There is an advert for the Cult Cafe in Ipswich in The Times today.
What is unusual about the advert is that it appears to have been paid for by Barclays.
So has your bank paid for you to have an advert in a national newspaper.
I have written to the cafe to see if they are making any difference to the gluten-free desert that is Ipswich.
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March 18, 2014
Posted by AnonW |
Food, World | Cafe, Ipswich, Newspaper |
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London needs houses and one of the best places to build them is in the East near the Thames in Barking. The developments are talked about here.
Development has been a bit slow, as the area is badly served by public transport and the Mayor and the GLA have pushing for better rail links to the area.
One plan was to extend the DLR and the other was to extend the Gospel Oak to Barking line of the Overground.
According to this report in the Standard last night, it would appear that the Overground is to be extended. Here’s the first bit.
George Osborne will signal a £150 million rail link to speed up the construction of thousands of new homes in the capital in his Budget this week, it is revealed today.
The Chancellor is expected to indicate he is keen to extend the Gospel Oak to Barking Line — nicknamed the Goblin Line — to Barking Riverside.
It would help unlock up to 11,000 new houses, offices and shops planned in a redevelopment that aims to transform a 350-acre site of industrial and brownfield land.
I wonder how many other projects like this, will turn up between now and the next election? This project is quoted as costing £150million, but as it makes 11,000 new homes viable and probably creates quite a few jobs, this surely is the sort of project that has a high benefit to cost ration. It also has the Overground-factor in that when it opens, it’ll probably attract far more passengers than expected and everybody will say why wasn’t it done years ago.
There are some interesting ones that have been proposed. Some of the ones I like are upgrading of the Marshlink Line and the Tees Valley Metro, both of which I’ve experienced in the last few weeks. None of the ones here, are big rail projects, where lots of new track and new trains are required.
I suspect that after seeing George Osborne’s backing for the Northern Hub and railway electrification in general, I have this feeling that after the Gospel Oak to Barking line announcement, that the budget may have some rail infrastructure surprises from the reinstatement and upgrading of lines to the building of new stations and the refurbishment of old ones.
One thing that seems to have happened in the last few years, is that now the passenger and freight flows on our railways are getting more stable and predictable, Network Rail has implemented some projects like the Hitchin flyover, where the msin purpose, is to make the important lines more reliable and less subject to delay.
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March 18, 2014
Posted by AnonW |
Transport/Travel | Barking Riverside, George Osborne, Gospel Oak And Barking Line, Housing, Tax |
2 Comments
I’m just reading the BBC’s prediction for tomorrow’s Budget. Under the section on VAT, there is this information.
The Budget should enact important changes to the payment of VAT on internet purchases and downloads.
Buyers, for instance of e-books, will now have to pay the VAT rate of their home country, not that of a retailer such as Amazon.
It charges just 3% VAT, the rate in its home territory – Luxembourg.
From 1 January 2015 it will have to charge UK purchasers the 20% British VAT rate – and then hand that money over to the UK government.
It will mean higher charges for some UK internet shoppers who use a foreign service, and it will raise about £300m more each year for the Treasury.
This is an EU-wide change affecting all 28 member countries and will remove the price advantage of some internet retailers based outside the UK.
So due to some EU legislation, you’ll pay more for e-books from Amazon, but then the VAT rules will be fairer and the government will get more tax revenue and hopefully allow UK companies to compete easier.
Is this the start of getting the big multi-nationals to pay their full moral level of taxes, like we plebs do?
I certainly hope so!
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March 18, 2014
Posted by AnonW |
World | Europe, Tax |
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Victoria Derbyshire on BBC Radio 5 Live interviewed Bill Hagan, who is a retired British Airways pilot this morning about an incident that happened on BA Flight 2069 on the way to Kenya on the 29th December, 2000.
It is an amazing interview and it should be listened to, by anyone, who’s ever flown. You can here it here on this page. Just look for Bill Hagan and 17th March 2014.
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March 17, 2014
Posted by AnonW |
Transport/Travel | BBC, British Airways, Flying, Radio |
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I went to the View Tube on Monday and saw this sign outside.
We’ve Now got Some Information On The Sewer!
It’s only one sign, but I suppose it’s a start.
But we need more boards like this on all big buildings, projects, stations and bridges to inspire the next generation.
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March 17, 2014
Posted by AnonW |
World | Engineering, Water |
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I’ve taken a lot of views of this new station from the existing Pudding Mill Lane station, but these views are from the other side.
It is quite a large station and I assume that is because it will be used as one of the main entrances to the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.
Wikipedia says it will open in April 2014.
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March 17, 2014
Posted by AnonW |
Transport/Travel, World | Pudding Mill Lane Station, Stratford |
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The Anonymous Widower 