Money Talk

At dinner tonight Beryl & I had a serious talk about money. Not the usual banter of 'I'd like to..' and 'Sorry, but no..' but instead we discussed the true impact of the Chancellor's pre budget report and the INCREASE he announced in our state pensions.

I was watching his speech in Parliament on Wednesday and like millions of senior citizens received with delight his announcement to increase our pensions by 2.5% from next April. Not much to change our way of life but to coin Tesco's slogan 'Every bit helps'.

But over the next 48 hours, once financial experts had gone through the small print of his statement, the Treasury confirmed that the increase would not be applied to all elements of state pensions and in reality the changes would create a Government SAVING of around £350 million.

When I explained this mathematical sleight of hand to Beryl her response was to the point; "The Government are swindlers..."

Would anyone dare to disagree with Beryl in this mood?