How about thinking of the elderly for a change ?

[ivanhoe]

The middle classes have managed to put their case on the media map because of Child Benefit reductions.

Wheras the pensioners cause has never found a media voice.

So middle England are moaning about losing their Child benefit, and the media are picking up on it and discussing it as a topical issue, because the middle classes are making a fuss.

But hang on a minute ?, the poorest people in this country are not the middle classes, they are the working classes who in proportion to income are paying more taxes than the middle class, and the pensioners on a £5,000 a year State pension receiving a State pension which they have already paid for while working prior to their old age retirement are being ignored, even though the oldest pensioners fought for this country during the War years.

Our elderly people are the generation that government?s have run rough shod over for the past 30 years, this is the generation we should all be speaking up for, and this is the generation who have paid into the system all their working lives, but have to endure a basic State pension of £97 a week, and means tested handouts.

Many woman get less State pension due to lack of contributions while raising families.

Yes but those lots of other people arent old, and arent frail.

GET IT. ?

Ivanhoe - They are still suffering though. Your range of sympathy seems extraordinarily narrow.

we're all being screwed, as are the pensioners.

My nan didn't live in luxury, she sat in one room with an electric blower heater, and she refused to accept any money off us. In summer, her flat was boiling hot and I mean boiling and I bought a huge fan and she stubbornly refused to use it and told me to take it back to Argos and get the money back. Old people are proud, they don't want charity, they often refuse help. Yes she saved and gave presents for her great grandchildrem, because that was a pleasure for her. But she ate a tin of sardines and bread, she didn't eat like us.

Not all pensioners are well off. The Guardian says that our pensioners are some of the worse off in Europe.

Let's have sympathy for all our people, young and old. Let's change things and make the lives of all our people better.

A famous Liberal once said that "you can judge a country by the way it looks after it's elderly people".

And I agree with that.

Claig - Not being funny, but had your Nan ever heard the phrase 'cutting off your nose to spite your face'?

//////we're all being screwed, as are the pensioners.

My nan didn't live in luxury, she sat in one room with an electric blower heater, and she refused to accept any money off us. In summer, her flat was boiling hot and I mean boiling and I bought a huge fan and she stubbornly refused to use it and told me to take it back to Argos and get the money back. Old people are proud, they don't want charity, they often refuse help. Yes she saved and gave presents for her great grandchildrem, because that was a pleasure for her. But she ate a tin of sardines and bread, she didn't eat like us.

Not all pensioners are well off. The Guardian says that our pensioners are some of the worse off in Europe.

Let's have sympathy for all our people, young and old. Let's change things and make the lives of all our people better./////

You are talking to largely Britain's most self centred generation, the middle classes.

I am fucking skint, but I find £10 per month to donate to AgeUK. That's how I feel about it.

Charities which serve the elderley just aren't as trendy as children's/cancer/animal charities, so any thread which raises awareness of pensioner poverty is a bonus imo.

/////Claig - Not being funny, but had your Nan ever heard the phrase 'cutting off your nose to spite your face'?////

You insulting swine.

///////I am fucking skint, but I find £10 per month to donate to AgeUK. That's how I feel about it.

Charities which serve the elderley just aren't as trendy as children's/cancer/animal charities, so any thread which raises awareness of pensioner poverty is a bonus imo./////////

Brilliant.

/////Claig - Not being funny//////

No, your not funny.

Ivanhoe - Middle class is a socio-economic group not a generation. There are middle class pensioners. Quite a lot of them. More than the working class pensioners actually due to the longevity thing.

'I'm not sure what other countries are paying their pensioners contributes to that.'

It's not insulting, it was true. You've never met anyone like my nan. She was unique, the toughest person you will ever see, nobody more stubborn. A fighter and battler who had a tough life and had seen it all. She was awkward, proud and refused help. That's how many old people are. There are loads like her, and she lived frugally, just as many of our pensioners do.

Ivanhoe - you don't need there ///////////.

"" are perfectly adequate for showing that you are quoting. Take less time to type as well.

Claig - I think your copy and paste buffer screwed up there.

soory quote should have been about insulting my nan.

GMajor7SwansASwimming, well done. There is such a thing as karma, and good deeds are rewarded.

Thought so ;)

////////TheCoalitionNeedsYou Fri 03-Dec-10 17:28:41
Ivanhoe - you don't need there ///////////.

"" are perfectly adequate for showing that you are quoting. Take less time to type as well.///////////

I neither want or need lessons off you thank you very much.

My Gran was the same about my parents paying for things for her. It doesn't mean that refusing help when it is offered is a noble thing though. It is a dumb thing to do.

Ivanhoe - No, you DO need lessons from me, because you are doing it wrong.

//////soory quote should have been about insulting my nan.

GMajor7SwansASwimming, well done. There is such a thing as karma, and good deeds are rewarded.///////////

Older poorer people are very giving, my mum was like that.

Thatcher's children, today's middle classes, are richer in pocket, but poorer in social attitudes.

They have been brain washed that they are the most important people in this country.

Why else would the politicians need their vote to gain power ?

'It is a dumb thing to do.'

it's not dumb, it's human. Is it dumb to be human? We are not robots on a politician's spreadsheet. We are human and we are how we are. Let's have a caring system that understands people as they are, not how a planner would like them to be.

You could do with some hints on "Backing up ones arguments" as well. "Waiting for Claig to do it for you" is a sub-optimal strategy.

Oh I agree that systems have to account for people actual behaviour - but that doesn't make refusing help that reduces your hardship while imposing no/little hardship on the person offering it really is just dumb.

/////'It is a dumb thing to do.'

it's not dumb, it's human. Is it dumb to be human? We are not robots on a politician's spreadsheet. We are human and we are how we are. Let's have a caring system that understands people as they are, not how a planner would like them to be./////

The free market goes against the soul.

Citation needed.