Talking of getting a grip on reality Jom:

Your SWEDEN link concerns the situation in Sweden in 2006 FFS - That is a decade ago and it states very clearly all the ills and trends in Sweden that you condemn in the UK. The information I have given you is current.

"I don't give a fuck how long you worked in Scandinavia"

But Jom I thought you were a great believer in personal experience, weighting what could be learned from it far greater than from any book learning. There you go Jom another one of your contradictions.

"I worked all my life in Britain, when I retired I was presented with the grand sum of £119.30 per week pension - the maximum."

In which case Jom you must have paid in the minimum in NI contributions. I too managed the required number of contributing years both as a self-employed man and as an Agency worker - My pension through the UK Pensions Service amounts to almost double yours. I suppose what helped it Jom was the fact that while working in Scandinavia for the first four years you work there you are not allowed to pay fully into their welfare and NI Scheme as a Brit you pay into the UK one. It means that you have no claim whatsoever on the National Scheme for the country you are working in - no unemployment pay, no benefits, you have to up sticks and return to the UK. But then you would have known all that had you actually read up on the Scandinavian Welfare System as it applies to foreign workers. But wait a minute, this no benefits thing for four years, isn't that what Cameron suggested? And was howled down for.

Norway makes an absolute fortune from foreign workers who transit through the country not stopping for longer than four years - the "Domestic" element of their Sovereign Wealth Fund derives its income from the reduced NI contributions from foreign workers and the employers full contributions, all gathered in by the Norwegian Authorities knowing full well that they will never have to pay out a single penny collected as those who paid in will not be there to pick it up and because they did not pay full whack are not entitled - brilliant scam isn't it. The money collected in this "Domestic" element of the Sovereign Wealth Fund derived from NI contributions is used solely in investing in Norwegian Companies, R&D and technology, while the other part of the Sovereign Wealth Fund that is derived from Norway's Oil & Gas Industry is invested globally - both make the country a fortune.

"Had we not lived in London and had a couple of incredibly lucky opportunities to buy our home and sell it when we moved"

Now those incredibly lucky opportunities wouldn't have had anything to do with "Thatchers home ownership con" would they? I know shed loads of people who did take advantage of the right to buy scheme and did very well out of it.