State Pension?

nc_killie said:
Bill, I am sure that you could but not in a positive way!!
Politicians from all parties are the same, irrespective of nationality or party. Thank goodness up here Holyrood is perfect and the only imperfections are not their fault but imposed on them from Westminster, be it Tory or labour!
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Hi John, we voted for them - maybe we get what we deserve or what those who did not vote want us to have - chaos!
 
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AndrewFlannigan said:
I think that he's telling the truth after 14 years of smoke, mirrors and most of all, downright lies.

Plenty of members or supporters of the previous government were, in the words of an infamous member of the Conservative party, "economical with the actualité". Starmer is doing the only honourable thing and telling us the worst. It will be time enough to criticise him in a few years, if he hasn't taken action to repair the damage done by the tories.
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Do me a favour!! An MP being honorable? Like any MP (or PM) he says what he says to benefit him & his government, not for our liking.
 
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Jelster said:
Like any MP (or PM) he says what he says to benefit him & his government, not for our liking.
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At the moment, I'm prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt. Let's see where he gets to in the next couple of years, before we tar him with the same brush as the last few incumbents.
 
AndrewFlannigan said:
At the moment, I'm prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt. Let's see where he gets to in the next couple of years, before we tar him with the same brush as the last few incumbents.
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The first crack for me was when he appointed the disgraced ex MP Jacqui Smith and parachuted her into the HoL - now The Rt Hon Baroness Smith of Malvern - appointed Minister of State (Minister for Skills) at the Department for Education

We had a belly full of Tory sleeze I now await what Starmer will do?

HoL - Labour Party - what's that all about?
 
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Mr Bump said:
I voted labour and I am newly retired at 55 because we need hard decisions in this country to pay our massive society overheads a lot which was bought on by Roy from Preston
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And give the Train Drivers a large increase in wages
 
Graham W said:
Thanks for the speedy replies chaps...I've been hanging on the 'phone and they've just replied.
It's to do with contracting out prior to / after 2016 and NI payments made. She went into great detail untill I explained that I'm of an age that if I learn somthing new I'm likely to forget where I live...so we agreed that it's correct and that I will graciously accept the extra £48.17
Kind of makes up for the loss of the winter fuel announcment!
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Glad that the extra is correct.

I get mine in 2028 and it'll be £221.20. At the mo I'm getting a private pension + I've diverted the interest payments from my savings direct to my current account and luckily the pension and interest payments more than cover our outgoings.
 
BillN_33 said:
The first crack for me was when he appointed the disgraced ex MP Jacqui Smith and parachuted her into the HoL - now The Rt Hon Baroness Smith of Malvern - appointed Minister of State (Minister for Skills) at the Department for Educa
tion
We had a belly full of Tory sleeze I now await what Starmer will do?

HoL - Labour Party - what's that all about?
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With all this and I include the Cons in this too I do hope that people take more interest in politics and vote accordingly but sadly I think instead of getting more active people will be more likely to just be turned off... evidenced by our current gov (AFAIK) getting fewer votes than Gorbyn did when he lost.

The Labour party (arguably and IMO) isn't what it was. "Despised" by Paul Embery is IMO worth reading and I tend to agree with much in that book.
 
seaodyssey said:
And give the Train Drivers a large increase in wages
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if it gets the trains moving then yes like many things
he has also agreed to meet doctors demands
this country is dead if services don't work
 
Broadest shoulders, heaviest burden - constant reference to "this big black hole" in the country's finances

How do you reconcile these with giving well paid, (IMHO) train drivers a good pay rise, (digging the hole deeper), and taking the winter fuel allowance away from (broad shoulder?) pensioners.

It's all about socialist ideology, and that will never change
 
BillN_33 said:
Broadest shoulders, heaviest burden - constant reference to "this big black hole" in the country's finances

How do you reconcile these with giving well paid, (IMHO) train drivers a good pay rise, (digging the hole deeper), and taking the winter fuel allowance away from (broad shoulder?) pensioners.

It's all about socialist ideology, and that will never change
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depends on how big the hole is , i suspect its a whopper and these things are barely covering costs.
personally we need an income tax increase in line with Scotland but that will not happen for a few years.
we also need more fuel duty rises , fuel is still cheap and the switch to hybrid and EV needs to be encouraged short term
 
Mr Bump said:
depends on how big the hole is , i suspect its a whopper and these things are barely covering costs.
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Then why do them - he keeps telling us how big the hole is and that it's growing every day - (but tax receipts are increasing, because of the growth in the economy, which he fails to mention)

He gave a good pay rise to train drivers and got nothing back, no increase in productivity, nadda, this pay rise will add to inflation and the cost of a rail ticket which will add to the cost of living - it was really bad press to do this with no gain, it will open the floodgates to inflationary public sector pay increases - if this is his idea of creating growth, well I just despair ........

Starmer is threatening pain in October - I would think that much will fall on the middle classes and (future pensions) as they are an easy target - he has certainly brought a nervousness to anyone who is near to retirement.

I feel that his strategy has become counter productive and he is losing, on a daily basis, the goodwill that he started with - but what do I know?
 
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I don't believe socialism works; nor do I believe that capitalism works.

A good system needs to be run on a compromise between socialist policies and capitalist policies. Our mistake has been a political system that not only permits but encourages severe swings from one side to another. However, I think the last 100 years have shown that, when a balance between the two is achieved, it does work.
 
Mr Bump said:
why is it a shame, EVs should pay VED they use the roads?

£10 for the first year from 2025 and then equalised at £186 / year seems spot on that?
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VED is not a tax for simply using the road. If it was then all road users would be taxed the same and that should include cyclists too.

We all know it's an emissions tax, non of which is ring fenced for road maintenance and is the reason for your little dig and hope of VED on diesels going up.

You were sold a pup to get you to buy a milk float. You fell for it hook, line and sinker and now they're taking the perks away slowly but surely until eventually, just like diesel, EV's will be the bad guy and something new will be forced upon us.

Give them half the chance and they'll be putting fuel duty on our electricity.

I'll happily pay the VED on my diesel. As least I can fill my vehicle up in 5 minutes and be on my 700 mile way while you hope you can find a charger and then sit around for a hour or more so you can drive 150 miles.
 
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ecoleman said:
VED is not a tax for simply using the road. If it was then all road users would be taxed the same and that should include cyclists too.

We all know it's an emissions tax (non of which is rign fenced for road maintenance) and you were sold a pup to get you to buy a milk float. You fell for it and now they're taking the perks away slowly but surely until eventually, just like diesel, EV's will be the bad guy and something new will be forced upon us.
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If they also take away (and/or align) the significant BIK advantages of the EV as a company cars then sales of expensive EV's will fall

(not sure that it will effect my small BMW i3 too much!)
 
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ecoleman said:
VED is not a tax for simply using the road. If it was then all road users would be taxed the same and that should include cyclists too.

We all know it's an emissions tax, non of which is ring fenced for road maintenance and is the reason for your little dig and hope of VED on diesels going up.

You were sold a pup to get you to buy a milk float. You fell for it hook, line and sinker and now they're taking the perks away slowly but surely until eventually, just like diesel, EV's will be the bad guy and something new will be forced upon us.

Give them half the chance and they'll be putting fuel duty on our electricity.

I'll happily pay the VED on my diesel. As least I can fill my vehicle up in 5 minutes and be on my 700 mile way while you hope you can find a charger and then sit around for a hour or more so you can drive 150 miles.
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Don’t let facts get in the way of ignorance.

Last time I used a charger, stopped for a pee and a drink and a snack. 20 mins later, 200 miles added.

I know that I love driving ev. Fast, nice to drive and in theory would not go back when mine is due to change. Don’t really give a rats to it being green or not. My Tesla was slightly cheaper than replacing my old sportage with a new one, obver £100 a month when fuel is factored in. Sure, the boot space in that was better but I know which one I would rather have.
 
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Thought I was starting a riot in the pub on Sunday when I suggested that the winter fuel allowance be re instated and to save money and instead cut child allowance payments completely, after we have little choice in aging, yet most have a choice in having children, especially if they have more than they can afford,
Ironically those shouting loudest that if child benefit was cut they’d face hardship were the ones who are most often in the pub.
 
cambsno said:
Last time I used a charger, stopped for a pee and a drink and a snack. 20 mins later, 200 miles added.
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That's still 4 times longer than I need to fill my car and 3 times less range then I get. That's a fact.

Each to their own but time is money. I really have no desire to sit around at a services for any longer than necessary.
 
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Lucky you, I'm 65 next June, and I'll only get about a fiver over max SP.
 
ecoleman said:
That's still 4 times longer than I need to fill my car and 3 times less range then I get. That's a fact.

Each to their own but time is money. I really have no desire to sit around at a services for any longer than necessary.
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yes but for the 100th time you are not normal
Proud Brexiteer, Covidiot and Man Made Climate Change Denier.
 
Mr Bump said:
yeah but you can't count people that didn't vot at all can you so the 60% is 100% of the vote(d)
if people don't get off there arse and vote they don't get a say

I voted labour and I am newly retired at 55 because we need hard decisions in this country to pay our massive society overheads a lot which was bought on by Roy from Preston

How much money has UK lost due to Brexit?


The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, will use a speech at Mansion House in the City of London tonight to reveal that the cost of Brexit to the UK's economy is £140billion, according to new independent analysis.11 Jan 2024
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The figures come from The Centre for European Reform which is hardly impartial or independent. When financial analysts make these sort of calculations they often choose which data of the vast amount available will best suit their purpose. A different organisation that is pro-Brexit will come up with a totally different figure. The facts that cannot be disputed are that the UK no longer have to pay the same contributions to the EU which includes recent heavy levies on contributing countries, which used to include the UK, to fund their crackpot social aspirations. That totals £ billions .

Yesterday and today I travelled over 200 miles each day in a car that cost me less than ten grand a couple of years ago and is still working fine after 14 years on the road. I am entitled to a subsidy if I bought an electric car and scrapped my diesel one. The least I would have to pay to get a car that covers my needs, but does not equal the one I have would be €45k. And I doubt that it would see ten years service before the batteries failed and were uneconomic to replace.
 
ecoleman said:
That's still 4 times longer than I need to fill my car and 3 times less range then I get. That's a fact.

Each to their own but time is money. I really have no desire to sit around at a services for any longer than necessary.
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You don’t need to.

As someone who has had ev for 14 months I have only used public chargers 3 times. Twice on a 180 mile trip each way so needed a pee and rest break so I would not have been any quicker with a petrol car. Other time was a week in Lincoln and yes, I did sit around waiting to charge for 20 mins as we were just doing local runs.

But seeing as filling up can easily take 5 mins and I used to do that twice a month at least, that’s 140 mi s plus I have not spent fuelling. Knock off that 20 mins and it’s 2 hours I have got back as it takes 5 seconds to plug in my home charger.

So if time is money, I am doing better than you!!
 
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Mr Bump said:
yes but for the 100th time you are not normal
Proud Brexiteer, Covidiot and Man Made Climate Change Denier.
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Didn’t Victorian’s think you would explode if your train went more than 10 mph?
 
I have had an i3 for over 3 years - always charged it at home - so as far as time goes it's taken no time at all as I just use a 3 pin plug and plug it in, so have saved the time I would have spent at the filling station had I used a ICE car
 
cambsno said:
You don’t need to.

As someone who has had ev for 14 months I have only used public chargers 3 times. Twice on a 180 mile trip each way so needed a pee and rest break so I would not have been any quicker with a petrol car. Other time was a week in Lincoln and yes, I did sit around waiting to charge for 20 mins as we were just doing local runs.

But seeing as filling up can easily take 5 mins and I used to do that twice a month at least, that’s 140 mi s plus I have not spent fuelling. Knock off that 20 mins and it’s 2 hours I have got back as it takes 5 seconds to plug in my home charger.

So if time is money, I am doing better than you!!
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Good for you!

EV works for you. They don’t work for everyone. Forcing EVks onto everyone won’t work and will never happen.

I will never drive an EV. NEVER
 
ecoleman said:
Good for you!

EV works for you. They don’t work for everyone. Forcing EVks onto everyone won’t work and will never happen.

I will never drive an EV. NEVER
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But that statement is futile really. I have never owned a diesel car, and I never will, but so what? Yes it's true, EV's don't suit everybody, but if I had to change my wife's car it would be an EV, she does less than 5k miles a year, all short runs, to work or to the shops. EV would be perfect. Me on the other hand, I do 200 mile each way trips 3 or 4 times a year, so I'd rather stick with an ICE car. That said, I generally stop for coffee on any run over 70 miles or so, so it probably wouldn't make a great deal of difference time wise.....
 
Nobody who lives in my little area of of Victorian terraces owns an EV. Nobody who lives in my mate's area of high rise estates owns an EV. How could they, realistically?

I know a couple of people with drives and garages who own EVs. They also jet off to foreign parts once or twice a year.

I don't know what's what. I only know what I know.
 
Jelster said:
But that statement is futile really. I have never owned a diesel car, and I never will, but so what? Yes it's true, EV's don't suit everybody, but if I had to change my wife's car it would be an EV, she does less than 5k miles a year, all short runs, to work or to the shops. EV would be perfect. Me on the other hand, I do 200 mile each way trips 3 or 4 times a year, so I'd rather stick with an ICE car. That said, I generally stop for coffee on any run over 70 miles or so, so it probably wouldn't make a great deal of difference time wise.....
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Good for you.

What’s futile about my statement?
 
Jelster said:
But that statement is futile really. I have never owned a diesel car, and I never will, but so what? Yes it's true, EV's don't suit everybody, but if I had to change my wife's car it would be an EV, she does less than 5k miles a year, all short runs, to work or to the shops. EV would be perfect. Me on the other hand, I do 200 mile each way trips 3 or 4 times a year, so I'd rather stick with an ICE car. That said, I generally stop for coffee on any run over 70 miles or so, so it probably wouldn't make a great deal of difference time wise.....
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The earth moving and mining vehicles will probably use more diesel in the manufacture of a vehicle battery than the fuel your wife would use in her car's lifetime.
 
Let's take the personal jibes out of this thread please, it's quite an interesting discussion with clearly some strongly held but differing views, and that's very ok because discussion benefits from different views. If some people prefer A and others believe strongly in B, that's fine, each to their own.
 
Mr Bump said:
yes but for the 100th time you are not normal
Proud Brexiteer, Covidiot and Man Made Climate Change Denier.
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You just can't stand the fact that I, along with many others have different views to you.

I love that my signature winds you up so much. That's why it's there.
It must keep you up at night with cold sweats.
 
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ecoleman said:
but, but, but ..... that doesn't count
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Neither does the dirty emmissions that ships pump out transporting all those materials and components back and forwards to the various manufacturing plants.
 
simon ess said:
Nobody who lives in my little area of of Victorian terraces owns an EV. Nobody who lives in my mate's area of high rise estates owns an EV. How could they, realistically?
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This is where the electric vehicle argument's weakness collides with reality.

It has, up to now, been a bribe for the wealthier members of society. If you can afford to buy an electric vehicle, we'll give you...
  • a scrapage scheme for your old vehicle
  • a government funded discount against the new vehicle
  • zero vehicle excise duty
  • and - oh yes - you can charge the vehicle from your domestic electricity supply and avoid fuel duty.
Some of this has gone but it's not hard to guess that it was part of the missing £20 billion.
 
ecoleman said:
You just can't stand the fact that I, along with many others have different views to you.

I love that my signature winds you up so much. That's why it's there.
It must keep you up at night with cold sweats.
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I am totally happy with people not wanting EVs as they live in a Victorian terrace and so cannot charge at home, or those that do 300 miles a day, or those that have a good car and don't want to or cannot afford to change. All valid reasons. It's the lies that are spread about them spontaneously catching fire, or that the range is rubbish, or you spend all day charging that annoy me.

I can only speak as someone who has moved from ICE to EV a year ago. Why? Noting to do with being green, I liked the look of Tesla, liked the interior and mainly the performance and acceleration. Not something I could have afforded had I got a similar ICE BMW or something - even the Kia Stinger would have been more and the new Sportage was more money too. So for my budget it was the best car I could afford. Most people will rarely use a public charger, so the argument on range and charging is irrelevant for most - like I said, have done 12k miles in a year and used only on long trips.
 
cambsno said:
I am totally happy with people not wanting EVs as they live in a Victorian terrace and so cannot charge at home, or those that do 300 miles a day, or those that have a good car and don't want to or cannot afford to change. All valid reasons. It's the lies that are spread about them spontaneously catching fire, or that the range is rubbish, or you spend all day charging that annoy me.

I can only speak as someone who has moved from ICE to EV a year ago. Why? Noting to do with being green, I liked the look of Tesla, liked the interior and mainly the performance and acceleration. Not something I could have afforded had I got a similar ICE BMW or something - even the Kia Stinger would have been more and the new Sportage was more money too. So for my budget it was the best car I could afford. Most people will rarely use a public charger, so the argument on range and charging is irrelevant for most - like I said, have done 12k miles in a year and used only on long trips.
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But they can and do spontaneously catch fire and the range is rubbish.

I'm glad you are happy with yours but I'm sick and tired of certain people and governments trying to force EV's on the entire population.

As you have pointed out and agree with, a lot of people do more than 200 (not 300) miles a day and many more live in Victorian Terrace streets where home charging is not an option and yet the government will continue with their silly plan until the country is on it's knees at which time they will all be voted out and disappear into the sunset with their golden pension or a seat in the HOL.
 
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ecoleman said:
But they can and do spontaneously catch fire and the range is rubbish.

I'm glad you are happy with yours but I'm sick and tired of certain people and governments trying to force EV's on the entire population.

As you have pointed out and agree with, a lot of people do more than 200 (not 300) miles a day and many more live in Victorian Terrace streets where home charging is not an option and yet the government will continue with their silly plan until the country is on it's knees at which time they will all be voted out and disappear into the sunset with their golden pension and a seat in the HOL.
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The instances of car batteries catching fire is being grossly exagerated. What is not exagerated however is the damage that can be caused to property as a result of a large lithium battery catching fire by any means. The Fire Service are more concerned over this issue as a lithium battery fire is very difficult to deal with.

Also, the issues of deterioration of an electric vehicle's range and the future problems of disposing of these dead batteries is being surpressed. In Germany the consumers have woken up to these issues and some German manufacturers are revising their decisions to phase out ICE vehicles.
 
ecoleman said:
But they can and do spontaneously catch fire and the range is rubbish.

I'm glad you are happy with yours but I'm sick and tired of certain people and governments trying to force EV's on the entire population.

As you have pointed out and agree with, a lot of people do more than 200 (not 300) miles a day and many more live in Victorian Terrace streets where home charging is not an option and yet the government will continue with their silly plan until the country is on it's knees at which time they will all be voted out and disappear into the sunset with their golden pension or a seat in the HOL.
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Again, more myths... the government have been in place for 8 weeks or so, it was the last government that started this! But like any new tech, it is normally expensive so needs help to get adoption in early stages.

All cars catch fire - Luton airport... ICE caused it!

Range - rubbish is a subjective word but no, the range is not rubbish. For the majority of the population it's perfectly fine, 12k a year is slightly more than average IIRC and never had an issue. Long trips people should or will stop for 20 mins, and day to day its just topping up at night if needed. If you are an average driver, range is fine and not an issue.
 
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