Keith Sansum1
- Location: london
- Registered: 25 Aug 2010
- Posts: 23,942
maybe trying to stop boris??
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Guest 716- Registered: 9 Jun 2011
- Posts: 4,010
Desperate Duncan...........?
Iain Duncan Smith calls for wealthy pensioners to hand back benefits
Work and Pensions Secretary says well off pensioners should return benefits including the winter
fuel allowance and bus pass
Iain Duncan Smith has called for wealthy pensioners to hand back bus passes, the winter fuel
allowance and free TV licences. Photograph: Chris Jackson/Getty Images
Wealthy pensioners who do not need benefit payments should voluntarily hand back the money
to the government, the Work and Pensions Secretary has said.
Iain Duncan Smith encouraged better-off elderly people to pay back taxpayer-funded financial
support that they do not need, such as the winter fuel allowance and free bus passes and television licences.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
up to him whether he wants to means test these benefits, nobody in their right mind would send money back.
Guest 698- Registered: 28 May 2010
- Posts: 8,664
The cost of means testing would exceed the yield. Easier just to withdraw the benefit from pensioners on the higher tax rates. I don't think many people would see that as unfair.
I'm an optimist. But I'm an optimist who takes my raincoat - Harold Wilson
Guest 716- Registered: 9 Jun 2011
- Posts: 4,010
Agree............
Jan Higgins
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 5 Jul 2010
- Posts: 13,883
I think IDS has completely lost touch with the real world.
How many wealthy pensioners will be using buses I am willing to bet they either drive or get taxis and I suspect that charities get most if not all of any unwanted heating allowance. As you say Peter means testing would hardly be a way of saving in relative terms a small amount of money.
His strange ideas will not help the Conservatives in next weeks local elections, silly timing from a silly man.
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I try to be neutral and polite but it is hard and getting even more difficult at times.
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Guest 715- Registered: 9 Jun 2011
- Posts: 2,438
What actually is the cost of a bus pass to the issuing authority?
Audere est facere.
Keith Sansum1- Location: london
- Registered: 25 Aug 2010
- Posts: 23,942
fairly high i suspect martin
peter we agree
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Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
I don't know,i've only just got mine.
Guest 716- Registered: 9 Jun 2011
- Posts: 4,010
The freemasons who allow women to join
Yes, women can join the freemasons - the Co-Freemasons that is. But why would anyone want to?
Nikki Roberts, 31, followed her grandfather into the Co-Freemasons.
On a leafy street in the London suburb of Surbiton, a big white sign welcomes visitors to a masonic
lodge for "men and women". The lodge is an imposing Edwardian mansion, down the stairs of which
comes a white-haired man offering his hand to shake, which is a bit hurried on a cold, wintry morning,
but not particularly funny.
Julian Rees is a member of the International Order of Co-Freemasonry and he is keen to disprove the
sense that it is a secret men-only society
. The visit to Surbiton was arranged by a press officer after I called the rules on allowing women to join
"complicated". Offering to carry my bag before he proffers a cup of tea, Rees explains that his order
has welcomed women since its formation by feminist and socialist Annie Besant in 1892. Women
now make up more than half of the Co-Freemasons estimated in the UK today.
Yet, as we climb the hexagonal staircase of the British HQ, filled with symbols and pictures of elaborately
dressed masons, the presence of women doesn't detract from some of the bigger questions about the
freemasonry, such as why a publicist is arranging meetings with a society best known for its secrecy
. The answer lies in the fact that freemasonry in this country is in something of a crisis,suffering from a declining
and ageing membership.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
rather like our political parties, we don't see many young people joining.
Keith Sansum1- Location: london
- Registered: 25 Aug 2010
- Posts: 23,942
agreed howard
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Guest 716- Registered: 9 Jun 2011
- Posts: 4,010
He will be a good judge....................
Leveson inquisitor Robert Jay to become one of Britain's senior judges
He was named barrister of the year for 2012 by The Lawyer magazine
Robert Jay, the dictionary-brained barrister whose studiously polite inquisition of witnesses
made him one of the stars of the Leveson Inquiry, is to become one of Britain's senior judges.
The bearded QC, who was the leading counsel for the inquiry into press ethics and led the televised
grilling of many celebrities and journalists, was among three new High Court judges whose
appointments were announced today.
Keith Sansum1- Location: london
- Registered: 25 Aug 2010
- Posts: 23,942
could be an interesting appointment
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Guest 716- Registered: 9 Jun 2011
- Posts: 4,010
lobal carbon dioxide in atmosphere passes milestone level
Climate warming greenhouse gas reaches 400 parts per million for the first time in human history
Hawaii's Mauna Loa observatory, where record CO2 increases are being documented.
For the first time in human history, the concentration of climate-warming carbon dioxide in the
atmosphere has passed the milestone level of 400 parts per million (ppm). The last time so much
greenhouse gas was in the air was several million years ago, when the Arctic was ice-free,
savannah spread across the Sahara desert and sea level was up to 40 metres higher than today.
These conditions are expected to return in time, with devastating consequences for civilisation,
unless emissions of CO2 from the burning of coal, gas and oil are rapidly curtailed. But despite
increasingly severe warnings from scientists and a major economic recession, global emissions
have continued to soar unchecked.
Keith Sansum1- Location: london
- Registered: 25 Aug 2010
- Posts: 23,942
bet philip doesnt agree
its just mist he will say lol
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Guest 716- Registered: 9 Jun 2011
- Posts: 4,010
Voters accuse Cameron of putting tactics before beliefs
Many voters believe David Cameron's European strategy is unconvincing
David Cameron's shift on Europe this week could backfire because voters believe he is acting
through calculation rather than core belief, according to a poll. Only 17 per cent of voters think
the Prime Minister feels strongly about his European strategy while 64 per cent think he is
motivated by tactics.
Even Tory voters believe that, on the question of Europe, tactical considerations outweigh
Mr Cameron's convictions by a 45-44 split.
Keith Sansum1- Location: london
- Registered: 25 Aug 2010
- Posts: 23,942
Its clear the mouse only reacted after the disaster at the polls in the recent local elections, on top of that UKIP's little surge,
Of course the general public are still aware hes only promising the referendum in 2017.
but he has like it says above a different agenda as hes clear he wants to stay in europe
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Brian Dixon- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
to put it bluntly ukips win at county level is a fart in a thunder storm.
Keith Sansum1- Location: london
- Registered: 25 Aug 2010
- Posts: 23,942
We will have to see if they can sustain it
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