"Which benefits only the wealthy of Britain and leaves the rest of us in the shit" - Jim Carroll

Is that what you "feel" Jim? Or is that what you "think"? Or is that what you "know"?

Any idea how pensions get paid Jim? Not state pensions but ones companies and their employees pay into. The money goes into a company pension fund and that gets invested, if they didn't do this then the pension scheme is unsustainable. So tell me Jim taking into account the vast sums invested by those pension funds and Insurance Companies who then pay out to the likes of you and me do they fit into your category of "only the wealthy"?

The Government doesn't have to do that because it has the tax payer to rely on and fund them. Besides they can always "rob Peter to pay Paul" if in trouble knowing that they then enact legislation to raise more revenue. Unfortunately their easiest way of doing this is by increasing what they call "indirect" taxation as "direct" taxation in the form of income tax accounts for only a minute percentage of the money Government needs and by increasing "indirect" taxation everybody gets nailed.

"For this, you would happily deprive the unemployed of European jobs."


Actually I don't employ anybody and I am not depriving anybody of anything - happily or otherwise.

But here a couple of "facts" should be tossed into the ring.

More people from the EU work in the UK than UK nationals work in the EU. The figures according to the BBC are as follows:

UK nationals working in the EU = 1.33 million
Nationals from EU living and working in the UK = 2.9 million

That last figure has more than doubled in the last 10 years having gone up from 758,000 in 2006 to 2,900,000 today.

Figures for those from overseas and not from EU countries has remained fairly steady over the same period.

As to depriving the UK's unemployed of jobs in Europe - Sounds very much like you are advocating a "get on your bike" solution there Jim.