Friday 21st February 2020

[refitman]

Morning all.

[gilsey]

Good morning.

We've been on holiday, letters on the mat when we got back about the state pension increase from April.
I finally qualified my state pension last year and mr gilsey's older than me and has been getting his for quite a few years now, we get about the same per week in total although we've got there by different routes. To start with his was a few pence more than mine, from April his will be a few pence less, I probably wouldn't have noticed if we got very different amounts.

On investigation it turns out that only the basic state pension is triple locked, the increase is 3.9% this year. Anyone retiring before the change has SERPS, S2P etc listed separately and they're uprated by CPI which is 1.7%. I have a 'protected payment' which also goes up with CPI, but my 'new' state pension is over £40/week more than his 'basic' state pension. So for next year the triple locked amount for someone retiring under the old system is £134.25 and under the new system it's £175.20.

There was talk when the new system came in about various ways in which it might affect people adversely but this is one way in which it's definitely an advantage. The cumulative effect might be significant if we live to a ripe old age.

Apologies if you all knew this already.

[gilsey]

Jonathan Coe
@jonathancoe
Dear Spectator, Dave is the rapper's real name. Boris is not the Prime Minister's real name. You've got your inverted commas in the wrong place.

COFFEE HOUSE

Rap stars like ‘Dave’ should stop calling Boris a racist

[HindleA]

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulation ... theuk/2020" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

"Within our families, parents in the UK were less likely to regularly give help to, and receive help from, their adult children not living with them in 2017 to 2018 than in 2011 to 2012, falling by four and six percentage points respectively."

[AnatolyKasparov]

They should stop calling him one when he stops acting like one.

Deal?

[PorFavor]

Good morfternoon.

Donald Trump jabs at Parasite's Oscar win because film is 'from South Korea'

President says US has trade problems with South Korea and wonders if ‘we can get Gone With the Wind back’ (Guardian)

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/f ... outh-korea

[AnatolyKasparov]

Nice dig in response from the producer

[gilsey]

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulation ... theuk/2020

"Within our families, parents in the UK were less likely to regularly give help to, and receive help from, their adult children not living with them in 2017 to 2018 than in 2011 to 2012, falling by four and six percentage points respectively."

Falling wages in real terms and stingy social security means more people working and working more hours. Less time for caring.

My guess not having read it yet.

[gilsey]

Nice dig in response from the producer

Was that the one expressing disbelief that Trump had even watched GWTW, it being 4 hours long?

[HindleA]

Number of carers in the "economic inactivity"stats,certainly falling ,half a million since 2010,1.3 million since '93

[HindleA]

https://www.inclusion-europe.eu/survivo ... community/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[AnatolyKasparov]

Nice dig in response from the producer

Was that the one expressing disbelief that Trump had even watched GWTW, it being 4 hours long?

Not the one I was thinking of, but good all the same

[HindleA]

https://www.theguardian.com/society/202 ... 0-to-staff" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[HindleA]

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/21/nyre ... nFoD6Fp89z" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[HindleA]

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... stion-time" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[AnatolyKasparov]

One local council byelection yesterday:

Middlesbrough - Tory hold with nearly half the vote, little changed from last year, in a ward that split 2Lab/1C last year when the Tory provided the only opposition to a full Labour slate of three candidates. In the 2015 post boundary change elections which created this basically new ward, Labour took all three seats (though the Tories were close) and held a 2016 byelection before the following year another vacancy saw a Tory gain - it is claimed this result helped convince our then PM that a snap election might be a good idea, and May duly announced it the following week. Of course the latest snap GE went rather worse for Labour, and in particular in areas like this, and their vote duly crashed as they were nearly caught by the LibDems who polled 18% - about as well as they did in 2015 but significantly better than their last previous showing in the 2016 vacancy. Independents used to poll well here and won seats in the area pre-2015, but two of them only polled 6% each this time.

Seven contests to end the month.

[RogerOThornhill]

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... stion-time

Turns out she's a Tommy Robinson supporter.

Who'd have thunk it eh?

[PaulfromYorkshire]

Crazy mad livid Debby says "liar" Boris Johnson's attack on the BBC is "pernicious" (5, 8).