British Pensioners in ‘Third of your Pension’ haircut shocker!
You don’t remember that headline, No? Probably because it was never written.
There are around 33,000 British Pensioners in France, where the Euro has been devalued against the pound sterling by a third over the past six or seven years. That means that British pensioners living here, many of whom have only their state pension, have taken a ‘haircut’ of 33% of their weekly income, as the UK has manouvered itself in the global money markets. The only time the UK press cared to address the matter was with sarcastic articles implying that all Brits live a life of ease, besides the obligatory swimming pool, sipping Sangria…
However, on behalf of 12,000 British pensioners in Cyprus, where the Cypriot government has threatened them with a 6.75% – 9.9% haircut on their savings, not on their weekly income, but on their excess savings – the media is in a furore! The Government is threatening to stop sending their pension to Cyprus to ‘save it from being stolen by the EU bandits’!!! The headlines are full of the desperate plight of those poor pensioners…
I love the smell of fresh hypocrisy first thing in the morning.
There is absolutely no difference to your weekly shopping ability between a state imposed ‘tax’ (albeit if it is in exchange for ‘gas tokens’), a dramatic drop in exchange rate in response to the monetary policies imposed by your Mother country, a freeze on pension increases (also imposed by your Mother country, unless you are lucky enough to be protected by European law) or for that matter, ‘Quantitative Easing’ devaluing your savings – at the end of the day, you are but a pensioner with less money to spend on looking after yourself.
Would somebody please explain to me in very simple terms, why it is the plight of the British pensioners in Cyprus, who have benefitted from extremely low rates of taxation on their pensions all these years, that has suddenly found itself the grateful recipient of outraged articles penned by our main stream media?
Why not the pensioners living on derisory frozen pensions in non-European countries?
Why not the pensioners living in Europe who have seen the rate of exchange drop dramatically?
Why not the pensioners living in Britain who have seen their pensions devalued by ridiculously low interest rates and Quantitative easing?
What is it about those 12,000 British pensioners living in Cyprus that has suddenly made the government care about the plight of British pensioners and the value of their savings?
Is one of them Cameron’s Mother or something?
Answers please, I’m puzzled!
March 22, 2013 at 11:37
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**I think you have magnificently missed the point Fake!
This is not a moan about exchange rates but a question as to why the
government and their poodle press are suddenly concerned about the plight of
pensioners in Cyprus.**
No I haven’t missed the point at all, I know that’s the point you where
making.
When are they not concerned about UK pensioners, what, because they don’t
just keep increasingly chucking more money at them they don’t care, even when
it’s a MASSIVE chunk of our governments spending?
You may argue it was the wrong decision, but they knew the effect o%
interest would have, they just see it as the lesser of two evils.
Sorry, but there is a whole world of difference between money being
directly confiscated, and money being weakened through policies, a world of
difference that doesn’t prove your point at all.
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March 20, 2013 at 21:43
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‘unless a rather larger country presents a problem’ – well yes obviously. I
had worked that out for myself. That you have a choice of candidates just
reinforces my point. Even Germany cannot save them all, even if the voting
German public was inclined to do so.
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March 20, 2013 at 20:05
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Well those already retired may think they have it tough but spare a thought
for those of us in our late 50s. My OH worked from the age of 15 and must
stick at it until he is 66 to get his pittance. By whuch time I am sure that
the fringe benefits pensioners currently enjoy will be scrapped or severely
means tested.
Personally I think the Euro is quite ridiculously over
valued, D-Mark influenced or not. The Euro crisis is by no means over.
- March 20, 2013 at 21:20
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With respect to Germany of course the Euro is undervalued.
The fact is that German factories have been full because of the
shenanagins of their southern neighbours both as customers and by depressing
the basket. If Germany were to leave the Euro (which is probably the most
rational thing for it to do) then the Neue D-Mark would appreciate by at
least 20% and probably more, driven by sentiment. At the same time the Neue
Euro would depreciate by a similar amount. Germany may make a big thing
about being expected to bail out these troublesome southerners but in fact
they need them.
It has much the same effect as China linking the Yuan to the dollar –
China in fact props the dollar up while keeping itself competitive.
Eventually the Yuan must de-link to avoid internal inflation when it will
rise by perhaps 10% and the dollar will fall similarly. Both these should
take place for the market to work properly.
The fact that the ECB seems content to let Cyprus go to the wall pour
encourager les autres means that this divorce is unlikely to take place in
the Eurozone unfortunately unless a rather larger country presents a problem
or one of the northern members voluntarily exits the common currency.
So we are headed for a federal EZ, political union by any other name
because that is the only way the Euro could ever work.
- March 20, 2013 at 17:18
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If you get a UK pension and choose to live abroad you are subject to
vaguaries of currency fluctuation. If the currency where you live falls
against sterling, you are better off, if it rises you are worse off. That’s
how it works – and should be as much a part of the calculation about where you
retire to as the climate and cost of wine. If the Euro collapses entirely ,
you might live like a king.
Freezing the pension seems reasonable, you are not, like all pensioners
living in the UK, paying VAT or duty and thereby contributing to “our”
economy. It’s a bit harsh, but it’s the reverse of the weird world that pays
pensioners heating allowance to people in Spain when it’s freezing in the
UK.
The situation in Cyprus is possibly unique – it’s a tiny population and
economy, and if enough money was simply lent to the country, it would be
endebted beyond reason (it would essentially still be insolvent after the bail
out), so somehow there needs to be enough money to save the economy, but it
can’t all come from outside. It’s all well and good voting no to the deal that
was done, but with no deal there’s no economy left. Voting in that situation
is like allowing cancer patients to vote on their chemotherapy.
- March 20,
2013 at 10:21
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I don’t quite get this freezing of pensions for anyone retiring abroad.
What’s to stop you returning to the UK for a short while, renting a house,
registering at a UK address and having your pension paid to a UK bank.
Wouldn’t they have to start paying you at the full rate, so then if you
happened to change your mind and emigrate again would they reduce it?
- March 20, 2013 at 18:22
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Yep, and I tried to convince my mother to have her pension paid to a
relatives address in England. She was horrified and refused to do so, did
not stop her from complaining about the inequity though.
The interesting
thing about the generation that survived the war and saw the introduction of
the welfare state is that they would not dream of using the “system” to
their advantage, even while watching others that had never paid into the
welfare state take full lifetime advantage. I admire their loyalty to the
country but not their loyalty to the welfare state.
I have often thought
there might be a nice business to be made of a shopfront English address for
ex-pats, mailing on govt cheques for a small fee.
- March 20, 2013 at 09:21
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Everyone seems to have missed the two real points of the upset.
The first is that if the ECB (essentially Berlin) effectively orders a
sequestration of private funds in Cyprus and gets away with it, it may be
persuaded to do that anywhere else. Hence there will be a flow of money out of
the Eurozone, mainly to dollars but also to the far east. Fortunately for the
UK, it won’t come here (except via the London exchanges maybe) because Osborne
in particular has made such a mess that the triple A is being turned into a
triple dip. This is of course unfortunate for ex-pats living off UK pensions.
I can’t get too exercised about the ex-pat situation – if you move countries,
this sort of thing is likely to happen. Sorry about that – your bad I’m
afraid. We have dear friends who came here from Germany and are very happy
here, despite all the doom and gloom in this and other columns. But they were
unwise enough to have some of their mortgage in EUR. Again, their bad.
The second point is that this is all bad news from the Eurozone – and the
ECB etc seems to have behaved stupidly about it. If you want to hit larger
savers, then probably a withholding tax on the margin about 100kEUR and a
sliding scale would have been a much better idea except such people have
recourse to defence and guns. So the ECB seems to have done everything
possible to piss off both the many small savers (and voters) and the markets.
Well done. But bad news for EZ is just a diversion from bad domestic news. In
other words I suspect it is blown up out of all proportion in the UK to
disguise the complete mess that Osborne and Cameron are continuing to make.
Schadenfreude in other words.
Pip pip – we live in interesting times!
- March 20, 2013 at 11:58
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To be fair to Osborne and Cameron, it wasn’t them that created the mess –
that was down to their predecessors. Sorting it out isn’t easy, and will
probably take a decade just to stabilise the economy, provided we don’t get
another bout of borrow-and-spend.
As for losing the triple-A rating, the approach advocated by the present
Opposition (borrow to spend) would almost certainly have lost us our
triple-A status a couple of years ago, so on that score at least the current
bunch of political idiots a shade better than the last lot of political
idiots.
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March 20, 2013 at 16:48
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They may not have created all the mess but they have made a pig’s ear
of trying to clear it up! And three years in, some of the mess is indeed
down to them. A lot of the mess has been a historical failure since at
least WW2 to grapple with underlying issues in the UK economy, apart of
course from the banks doing their best to bring the currency down for
which we have yet to see a few people behind bars.
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March 20, 2013 at 18:34
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“provided we don’t get another bout of borrow-and-spend.”……and that’s
exactly what you just got.
I agree it’s not entirely the cons fault, but they are equally as
incompetent as liebour, the bonfire of the quango’s never happened, and no
serious attempt has been made to reduce the cost of government.
- March 20, 2013 at 02:30
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I’ve read from a previous post that one of the reasons for this is that it
has not gotten over from the recession that happened way back 2007-2009. But
it is so sad that the most affected were the pensioners who have worked hard
on their earlier days to have a decent life when they get old. Hope the
government will do something about this.
- March 19,
2013 at 21:21
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I concede anna i will be a good boy from now on…
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March 20, 2013 at 01:00
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Do me a favour. Don’t be a “Good Boy” because that might be frightfully
boring. Unless you were horribly rude, which I must have missed if you
were.
- March
21, 2013 at 10:29
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righto….
- March 19, 2013 at 20:32
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But it could be argued that for years the pound was overvalued. I suspect
the “correct” value will pan out to about 1.25E to a pound. The higher value
reflected a complex set of circumstances, but included large inflows of
dollars from sales of oil, and the currency manipulations of the players in
the banking casino. We have lost much manufacturing by the same route. I have
noted on trips abroad that prices for food and the like are pretty much the
same all over the Euro zone. If anything they are higher in the UK.
While I have great sympathy for pensioners being robbed by our two faced
governments ( all persuasions ), would you be happier at home where heating is
a necessity, but gas bills have quadrupled in 10 years ( which pensions have
not)?
The truth is, we don’t make anything any more. We are living by national
equity release. There is worse to come – although the b#stards don’t want to
tell you that. We cannot afford the system we have.
- March
19, 2013 at 20:43
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591 billion tax take in 2012-13 according to institute for fiscal
studies
there is plenty of money they have just taken it unto
their-selves
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March 19, 2013 at 21:10
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Well, well, I can afford the system that I m stuck with. I don’t have any
choice. I have to get on with it. So I work. No other answer.
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March 19, 2013 at 22:01
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Look now if you all remember. The Euro was related to The Franc, which
was long term stable, so The Euro came out at 65 pence to The Pound.. And
this was perfectly acceptable to the Money Markets, give or take a
bit.
But then The Pound crashed yet again. The real problem has always
been with The Pound. I have seen The Pound crash more times than I even want
to think about. I was in France on that ghastly day when the whole thing
went nuts, several times.
But I was also in Singapore when The Labour
Party devalued The Pound in 1965 or there abouts. And thankfully we as
service families were compensated because there was no way in which we could
have afforded to go on paying our servants who were equally dependant on
us.
Suck it up. We had servants. Lovely it was.. And for them.
The Pound has been utterly unstable for most of the years of my life
because not one of The Politicians have any concept of what your average
housewife has always known. You can’t hope to spend more than you have got
without getting into trouble.
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March 19, 2013 at 23:23
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I thought the Euro has proved so surprisingly robust because it is in
essence the D-Mark. Let Germany revert to its former currency, and see the
Euro plummet…
Singapore? I left there with my folks 6 years earlier
than you mention, and servants, yes, rather comfy.
- March 20, 2013 at 00:26
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You can forget The Deutsche Mark. But perhaps you couldn’t spell it.
Dead easy. Just Google.. I couldn’t spell it either. Copy and Paste.
.What most people don’t seem to realise is that The Euro is doing
fine. It isn’t The Euro that has plummeted. Just the Jolly old Pound.
That is why the likes of me are having a bit of a hard time. It is The
Pound that has gone tits up, yet again.
And as for my servant, she was never comfy. Much more of a
responsibility to her and her entire family. But she loved my children,
so she was worth every penny I paid her. I am only sorry that I was not
allowed to be around for her and her family for longer.
- March 20, 2013 at
08:09
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“D-Mark” (or variant thereof) is a common abbreviation. Maybe
you’re just grumpy. Correct, the Euro hasn’t plummeted: that’s
because, as I suggested, in effect it’s the D-Mark. Can anyone magine
that it would have remained anything like as strong were it not the
currency of Germany?
- March 19,
2013 at 19:49
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anna dont edit chuck just remove them if they don’t bode well, i am a big
boy
- March 19,
2013 at 19:08
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you see when you have a generation of self absorbed individuals, this kind
of really important stuff happens :
Queen Elizabeth II took an unlegislated and unlawful coronation oath in
1953
- March 19, 2013 at 22:35
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Hang on. Was that the time when they crowned her with the hat made out of
tin foil?
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March 19, 2013 at 23:18
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Wow! With a plentiful supply of what you’re consuming, I could retire
happily to live on a beach in Gambia.
- March 19,
2013 at 18:45
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I agree. The poor bloody British pensioners – like me – living on their
savings have seen their income savaged my interest rate reductions after being
told by successive government to make provision for their old age.
Never mind! As long as we worry about the yoof unemployed (unemployment in
the over 55s is rising at twice the rate of under 25s), and [people with
mortgages and debts (we paid all ours off) then to hell with the rest. They
forget that it is our generation that (a) has – or at least had – the
disposable income so desperately needed to fuel the economy, and (b) we’re the
buggers that vote.
Please sign by good friend Chas C’s e-petition – see post over on mine at
http://dioclese.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/enough-is-enough-sign-petition.html
- March 19,
2013 at 18:30
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quote
I understand that those you are referring to are people who have
worked long and hard, paying into their pension fund
My question would be what exactly have the pensioners of today worked hard
at?
Well pretty simple really, they have worked very hard at usurping the
sacrifice of the fallen in the two world wars by letting in exactly what they
died for.
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March 19, 2013 at 23:19
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One or two possible interpretations of your closing sentence occur, sort
of, but frankly it’s pretty gnomic.
- March 19, 2013 at 17:53
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The thing (amongst the multitude) that confuses me about Europe and
pensions is the way in which they appear to be unique.
We have, literally, millions of foreign nationals here who have never
contributed anything to the British ‘system’ and yet, by European law we are
obliged to treat them the same as our own nationals. So they access housing
benefits, unemployment, Supplementary and child benefits, ……exactly as if they
were British nationals.
If you or I were to emigrate within the EU at working age and be unable to
find employment we are not then eligible to claim British unemployment
benefits are we? We would be forced, in desperation, to claim that countries
equivalent (if any, since Britain seems the only one with a benefit system
which supplies a comfortable lifestyle that the majority of employed can only
imagine).
I understand that those you are referring to are people who have worked
long and hard, paying into their pension fund, whether they wished to or not,
and now expect, not unreasonably, to receive it back now. But, as everyone
knows, pensions, in common with all other benefits, the NHS, etc., are and
were a ponzi scheme. We are forced to pay into National Insurance, a
proportion of which is ‘supposed’ to provide for unemployment benefits so
pensions are not unique in that.
So, my question, if we are all Europeans, why are those British nationals
living their retirement in other countries not receiving ‘those countries’
state pension instead of a British one?
As to why Cyprus when not the other areas raised? I suspect a mix of the
reasons already proposed (smaller numbers, publicity stunt, etc.) but also (as
I’m a dyed in the wool cynic) suspect that a number of political/media
‘relatives’ just happen to be resident/banking in Cyprus.
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March 19, 2013 at 18:57
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A British State Pension is not a Benefit. It is something that has been
paid for well in advance. I did not pay anything as such to The French
State, so The French State owes me nothing.
Yep, I could ask for
financial help from The French State, but I ain’t doing that because
anything they choose to give me will be distrained against my Estate if I
die. And quite rightly so. And I will not do that to my children. This was
my adventure, and not theirs. So there is no way in which I will ever expect
my children to pay for what I chose to do. It would have been a pretty
pathetic adventure otherwise.
“Oh, excuse me, Mummy is just about to bog
off an have an adventure, but don’t worry, you all will get The Bill later.”
Not at all my kettle of fish. But thar you go.
- March 19, 2013 at 20:09
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Elena
“It is something that has been paid for well in advance”
I’m not sure I agree. Consider the amounts (the average amounts
contributed over a lifetime wouldn’t give much of a pension). Consider how
many have contributed insufficient amounts due to breaks (especially women
leaving employ to raise families) or none at all. Compared to private
pensions (I have been comparing my employment pension – Superan [nurse],
state and private and none would give me much of an income in fact I’d be
much better off if I’d put them in a normal savings account, or better
still bought gold. Still considering I have a few years to go I don’t
expect there’ll be anything left by then). Whilst we’ve all paid in,
expecting to treat it like an investment in our futures, but in reality it
went straight back out to pay the pensions of those retired then.
I don’t disagree that this is wrong, but my question was more along the
lines of why when we are judged as one super-state for the implementation
of employment insurance purposes (the dole) are pensions treated
differently? And would it not be ‘better’ if on retirement we were given
our calculated contributions as a lump sum, if emigrating, to invest as we
see fit (after all we couldn’t do worse than the government and most of
the pension fund managers).
Just Askin’
- March 19, 2013 at 20:50
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What are you talking about? I did pay, regardless of whether or not I
wanted to. And it was probably okay. But don’t tell me that The State is
doing me any favours. It isn’t my problem if they took my money and used
it for other things.
Oh my goodness, I raised three ghastly children,
but I had to work to do that. How on earth else do you think I sent them
to Boarding School and a half decent education when The State wanted
them to be any old boring and unemployed rubbish? I never got to take
off time because I wasn’t having it.
So, I never had time or money
for a Private Pension. Tough shit. I don’t actually mind about that. But
don’t you ever tell me that I haven’t earned the pittance I get.
Oh my goodness me, I had ideas above my station. Too bloody right I
did.
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March 20, 2013 at 08:18
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Damn right it’s not a benefit, but the DWP insist on calling it
one.
Let’s also remember if you missed a few years through living
abroad or being found guilty of being a housewife not paying a full
stamp, there’s a proportional reduction. And part years of
contribution don’t count either; still had to pay though.
I don’t
recall even thinking about these things until very close to 65.
For those who think we’ve had it all and should be made to pay to
keep todays people in plasma screens, ipads and leather sofas, I would
ask them to think of the ruined country we were borne into during and
after WW2. Poor housing and a lack of it, long working hours, a
bankrupt state, and still managed to pay for a nhs, build loads of
houses and claw our way forward. All while funding of the Cold
War.
Yeah, I know we should think of the future not the past, but
the whining of todays ‘victims’ is sometimes hard to take.
-
March 19, 2013 at 17:41
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The difference in the situations seems obvious, so it’s only natural the
government and media spin or comment on them differently. In one case the
pensions have fallen in value because of a sliding scale – they have
fluctuated in one direction, if you like. In the other the loss is through a
one-off imposition on money in the bank. It’s always possible the pound will
rise against the euro and make up all the ground lost and more in scenario
one, but wildly unlikley that if the economy of Cyprus recovers the government
will pay people back with interest and stick a bit more on for the trouble.
Other than pensions being involved, I don’t see any grounds for
comparison.
- March 19, 2013 at 16:18
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Sorry You chose to live elsewhere, you can damn well put up with the
exchange rate, what about when the exchange rate works in your favour?
What about all those pensioners affected by interest rates, well yes, what
about them?
Oh that’s right, the government is trying to raise pensions.
Bit of a cheek to compare theft with a bad exchange rate deal.
And as to your whole “it isn’t actually that sunny here, so why should I
get my winter heating allowance”, well so what. Like all government enacted
policies they can never get the dividing line right as to what’s warm and what
isn’t.
- March 19, 2013 at 16:32
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I think you have magnificently missed the point Fake!
This is not a moan about exchange rates but a question as to why the
government and their poodle press are suddenly concerned about the plight of
pensioners in Cyprus.
- March 19, 2013 at 17:52
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Simple, dear girl; it is because it is the thin end of a very long
wedge. Once the idea of a Capital Levy (usually applied only in time of
war) is out there and taken seriously as a rational solution, we are all
in trouble. The BBC, The Guardian, etc., approve of this Statism, which
drops the very large hint that this will persist as an idea. It is on the
agenda. The project has failed, so the people, not the project, must
pay.
The confiscation of private assets (no matter to whom they belong) is
something of a Rubicon. That itself is interesting – “Oh, just a bunch of
Russian gangsters…”
But if the experiment in Cyprus can be carried off (the third smallest
economy in Europe, after all, but essentially Greek in response) then I’d
be checking my fire insurance in Athens.
I’ve just heard that an RAF flight is due in Akrotiri carring a million
Euros. The notes, I imagine, are still wet from the printing press…
- March 19, 2013 at 16:13
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We always take a risk when moving to foreign parts.
Back in the ’80s
living in RSA a change from R1.7 to R4.5/£1 over a bit more than two years
made essential payments to the UK unaffordable. Luckily the company made up
the difference; quite extraordinary generosity; I was quite ready to move back
home.
Now, savings earning damn all but I don’t expect to be bailed
out.
I do think taking a slice direct from depositors’ funds is a step too
far.
If they’re dodgy, fine, prove it and confiscate. Might improve the
culture.
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March 19, 2013 at 16:03
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I haven’t been complaining about The Exchange Rate. Nothing much anyone can
do about that, beyond the fact that the entire World lost faith in The Pound.
But when you are getting £100 a week to survive on, a drop of one third is
nearly catastrophic. And I did lose approximately one third at one point, and
for quite some time. The Pound and The Euro were nearly on a par for what
seemed like ages, and the only reason that it is a bit better now is because
France elected that Hollande idiot, and a bunch of Third World Countries were
spending fit bust anybody.
But I am complaining about being illegally deprived of The Winter Fuel
Allowance for 13 years. Britain had absolutely no right to do that. I paid for
more than 32 years of my working life for that one, and without so much as a
by your leave. NI was mandatory.
But I will get the Back Payments if I die
doing it, which is looking quite likely with all of the tricks they are
pulling in an attempt to ignore something that they cannot win.
And I know
all about wearing more clothes in Winter. But sadly, no swimming pool.
As it is, I am still working at the age of 74, and lucky to be able to,
although cutting half acre lawns isn’t all that much fun. But onwards and
upwards. I would much rather be here than there.
- March 19,
2013 at 14:41
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Its hard to feel sorry for you 60′s generation busy sucking 100 billion per
annum of our social security outlay, so you can sun tan twice a year while
families with little children are starving and have no heat.
For instance
across the road all this winter I have watched a young girl with three small
children sit all day and evening in full coat and scarf in their living
room.
And just so you can continue to moan while in sunny climes the
bedroom tax comes in next month which will perhaps see that family across the
road evicted.
ask not what i can do for you but what can you do for your country….a
sentiment lost
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March 19, 2013 at 17:35
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The winter weather here in mid western France (120 km east of La
Rochelle) is often colder than that of my son who lives in Surrey. I agree
that it is about 4°C hotter in the Summer. If you want to see what it is
like here go to http://www.meteo-melle.fr/observations/Current_Vantage_Pro.htm
for a real time report. The min temp last night was 2.2°C – warmer than it
has been for a few weeks.
- March
19, 2013 at 18:42
-
see comment at bottom….
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March 19, 2013 at 14:21
-
The whole Cypus tells us a great deal about what is wrong with Europe. A
national budget allowed to go out of control. Banks awash with dodgy money. I
heard that Cyprus is in fact the largest investor in Russia – as the dirty
money gets recycled. And then from on high the Euro Lords decide to sequester
the savings of the plebs, notwithstanding that it breaks the spirit if not the
letter of the pledge to protect deposits. Thus both demonstrating a scant
regard for the rule of law and complete lack of political “nouse” .
I have
much enjoyed the tweets of the brilliantly seditious Old Holborn, as he
gleefully revels in all this.
I would quite like a stable, open, democratic
Europe. But I can’t help but feel I can hear the sound of wheels coming loose.
Time to strap in for a bumpy landing, I suspect.
Brace! Brace! Brace!
- March 19, 2013 at 16:09
-
One prospectively heart warming aspect of the Cyprus situation is that
one Derek Hatton, ultra leftie member of Militant in Liverpool back in the
day, has his uber capitalist property empire in Cyprus, and hopefully got a
hefty haircut in the direct EU bank shakedown…
- March 19, 2013 at 14:06
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I always look at it from the lb of apples aspect. i.e. In 2000 it cost 68p
to buy a euro, it now costs 87p. So the cost of a euro has risen by 28%
(approx).
I am really pleased we did not join the euro!?!
- March 19, 2013 at 14:25
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Yes, Euroland has become a very expensive place to visit. I’m quite happy
to avoid it until they sort themselves out.
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March 19, 2013 at 23:08
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I’ve just returned from Euroland and, as usual, enjoyed paying
significantly less for diesel and very much less (like 70%) for beer… I
was staying in a house that’s going on the market soon for about the same
price mine might fetch: it’s more than twice as big, and close to a city
centre (mine’s in the country). There’s much to be said for “expensive”
Euroland, at least the German version.
- March 19, 2013 at 23:42
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But there is a bit more to it than all that. Bugger the bloody Euro
or The Pound, or the price of Diesel. I would rather be here. And why is
that? Why do I mind about being treated well? Why do I mind that passing
people are polite to me? Why do I mind that I get a smile from everyone
that knocks on my door? Why do I mind that no one ever treats me as
thought I am some silly old fart just because I am old.
-
March 19, 2013 at 13:43
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“…the Euro has been devalued against the pound sterling by a third over the
past six or seven years…”
I think you mean the other way around: the pound
has lost value against the euro. But not by a third. From 2003 to the middle
of 2007 the pound’s value hovered around €1.45, it is now hovering around
€1.15. In other words, the pound has lost approximately a fifth of its value
against the euro in the last six years.
- March 19, 2013 at 13:57
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You are right – I did mean the other way round, but the last time I
looked it was 1.47 against 1.05.
- March 19, 2013 at 14:23
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So not quite as dramatic if you get the numbers right.
Am I the only one who doesn’t recognise the absolute duty of government
to maintain the absolute value of cash money and pension entitlements? I’m
very sorry for the individuals concerned but those who are old enough to
be drawing from the state should also be old enough to remember a period
of very high inflation and repeated devaluations. Also, to retire to dodgy
non-rule-of-law country in a flawed single currency area is somewhat, err,
bold.
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March 19, 2013 at 20:08
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“…dodgy non-rule-of-law country in a flawed single currency
area…”
That is what I call a refreshingly interesting description of
La Belle France.
Won’t travel well I’m afraid.
For instance I’m
sure our French friends in our little bridge club tomorrow might not
appreciate your “rosbiff” humour!
Nor, come to that would any of our
local Brit friends either.
I retired here because I worked here for
over 40 years.
Oh, and I like living in France.
- March 20, 2013 at
00:54
- March 19, 2013 at 18:11
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I used the numbers from http://www.xe.com/ which gives mid-market rates i.e.
midway between the buying rate and the selling rate. It could be said that
the pound lost a third of its value against the Euro if you choose your
dates carefully. The highest value was €1.52 in January 2007, the lowest
was €1.03 at the end of 2008 which is as near as damn it a third. But it’s
recovered since then and hasn’t been below €1.10 since March 2010. It
closed today at €1.17.
http://www.xe.com/currencycharts/?from=GBP&to=EUR&view=10Y
- March 19, 2013 at 13:40
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So if the euro collapses and suddenly you are much better off with that
sterling pension will it be ok for the UK government to cut it?
- March 19, 2013 at 13:58
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if the Euro collapses I will be dealing in Francs…..
- March 19, 2013 at 16:05
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Will that be a de Gaulle or Petain grade Franc?
- March 19, 2013 at 18:52
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It’ll probably be Deutschmarks.
- March
19, 2013 at 13:08
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When the politicos have mortgaged the future several times over, what do
you expect? Brioche?
Hanging’s too good for them – expose them to Vogon
poetry.
- March 19, 2013 at 13:19
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I’d agree, except for the fact that they write it. As an alternative, I
would have suggested 24/7 exposure to South American soap operas, but that’s
too much like a parliamentary home from home. Let’s stick with the
hanging
- March 19,
2013 at 15:34
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Vogon poetry is of course the third worst in the universe. The second
worst is that of the Azgoths of Kria. During a recitation by their poet
master Grunthos the Flatulent of his poem ‘Ode to a small lump of green
putty I found in my armpit one midsummer morning’ four of his audience died
of internal haemorrhaging, and the president of the Mid-Galactic Arts
Nobbling Council survived only by gnawing one of his own legs off. Grunthos
is reported to have been ‘disappointed’ by the poem’s reception, and was
about to embark on a reading of his twelve book epic ‘My Favorite Bathtime
Gurgles’ when his own major intestine, in a desperate attempt to save life
and civilisation, leapt straight up through his throat and throttled his
brain. The very worst poetry of all perished along with its creator Paula
Nancy Millstone Jennings of Greenbridge, Essex, England in the destruction
of the planet Earth.
Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the
Galaxy
- March 19, 2013 at 21:00
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I’m afraid Shakespeare has the same effect on me too – half his words
aren’t used any more and the other half have new meanings, yet ‘everyone’
who hears his words are magically elevated to new heights of ecstasy, (or
is that what his proponents are on?).
- March 19, 2013 at 13:04
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I think that the media news cycle responds better to ‘acute’ events rather
than to ‘chronic’ situations. It is easier to report the cause/effect of what
the Cypriot Govt is doing than it is to report on the impact QE has on living
standards.
Anyone receiving their income in one currency, & then choosing to spend
in another currency, has to accept foreign exchange (currency) risk as a fact
of life.
I have some sympathy for HM Government employees in Cyprus, but otherwise I
don’t see why the British tax payer has any duty to underwrite investments in
a non-UK bank. That includes UK residents who invested in foreign banks.
Ideally I would like to see all public subsidies to private investments
abolished. Private failure is cheaper than public failure.
-
March 19, 2013 at 13:02
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I might add that British Pensioners living in Australia not only have had
the exchange rate devaluation (over 40% in five years – strong Oz dollar) but
the pension is frozen. It gets no increases.
- March 19, 2013 at 13:01
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Not just pensioners, anyone with invested savings, the product of which
they had planned to use to live out their later years, has suffered almost 5
years of negative returns from the imposition of virtually zero interest
rates. To many, that’s been a far bigger ‘haircut’ than the proposed one-off
Cypriot slice.
- March 19, 2013 at 20:43
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Absolutely right. Savers are the forgotten victims – and not the rich
ones, either. Those with a few thousand in life savings safe in a building
society deposit account have been quietly and systematically robbed.
So much for standing up for those who have done the right thing.
-
March 19, 2013 at 12:56
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Could be because there are only twelve thousand of them. A cheap publicity
stunt for Caring Tory Britain. Much cheaper than dishing out The Winter Fuel
Allowance for thirteen years to anyone who had the good sense to get out
before they retired. And what is “Retired” when it’s at home? Chance might be
a good thing.
{ 68 comments }