It has been a wet and watery day today. School was closed to the children because of the strike but as I cannot afford to lose the pay I went in to work for the morning though I sympathise with those who have gone out on strike. Every day it seems there is yet another measure to save money in this time of recession but somehow the wealthy are never affected. Today's strike is about pensions for those of us working in the public sector. As I (and many others) won't have worked for 30 years full-time my pension will be zilch anyway. Retirement age is being moved to 67, the amount of pension is being reduced, wages continue to be frozen and pension contributions will be increased. To add insult to all this the extra money from the increased pension contributions will not be going into the pension fund but will be siphoned off for other uses. Needless to say the banks, even those who were rescued with public money continue to award themselves bonuses in the millions and I'm sure there is no talk of reducing their generous pensions. In the private sector pensions are being phased out or down but only for the workers. Yet again company directors and such like are still doing very well nicely. In the last year top company directors' (self awarded) pay increased by 50%. No wonder ordinary people are disgusted with those in power. For the many people who have to rely on the state pension they can take satisfaction that this country has the 3rd lowest state pension in the whole of Europe. The people of this country are being brought to their knees by the greed of big business and the clinging to power by the wealthy.
Rant over!
For the last week a light coloured buzzard has been sitting on the fence or in the field up by the road so today I thought I would try and catch him unawares. I parked my car around the corner and crept around the hedge. Naturally the buzzard wasn't there, only a flock of sheep hanging around the gateway who ran off as soon as they saw me.
Then stopped at a safe distance to see what I was up to.
3 comments:
When we were around in the UK and they had a strke it was so awful having to walk past them into work (we worked local government). We couldn't afford to loose pay either (we had just had Beth) and we had to push our way past the protesters that were our friends. That was awful.
Ruta.....Today on Nation Public Radio (NPR) the strike in England was announced each hour. I am so glad you addressed the strike. Here in the U.S., we are in the depths of a tagic recession as I'm sure you are aware. Like your bankers and big wigs, ours continue to award themselves hefty bonus not to mention the other "freebes". Here, too, balancing the books is being done on the back of "we the people". My husband and I often wonder about the world our adult children and grandchildren will live in. I fear it won't be very pleasant. Like most "middle" class people, our retirement fund has taken a terrible beating. Unfortunately for us, we are in no position to recoop what we've lost. We are retired as of last March. The blessing for us is we live simply.
I feel that the current anger around the world is due to seeing how the powerful take advantage of the masses. There is a lot to be said for cutting back on the luxuries we seem to be taking for granted but when basic essentials such as housing,food and warmth are threatened there is something very wrong. We will be content if in our retirement we do not have to worry about food and heating costs.Of course we would still like to be in the countryside or near the sea.
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