Why can we not be more like the French?

[Papaumau]

Could be Chris !

Mind you I think the "great" went out of Great Britain after we gave up our empire.

I DO think that that was the right thing to do as an imperial Britain was a big bully that allowed the privateers abroad to bleed these colonies dry.

During the time of the Raj in India and elsewhere - and supported by slavery - we saw individual riches in this country grow to such disproportionate levels that we were truly a banana republic at that time in the ratio of richness to poverty and many of the massive estates handed over to the rich friends of royalty became even richer once their income came home from the colonies. The hundreds of massive baronial homes that we  - as peasants - now trudge around to visit were built as a result of this wealth that came to Britain during the long years of the reign of Queen Victoria.

This started a "them and us" culture where the rich got and stayed VERY rich and the poor got poorer and the few professional people in the middle like doctors and lawyers became the "middle-classes" who's desire it was to emulate the privileged ones just above them.

Blair once said that Britain was now a "classless society" but never was he more wrong than when he said that as the three classes highlighted above are STILL in strong existence today and will continue to be until true and full emancipation comes to the people of Britain.

If this will ever come I cannot say, but if it does come it will be far away in the future. 

[annick]

I agree that people should not take every rotten decision concerning their life lying down.

I am a French citizen married to an English man. I have worked all my life in this country and get half the pension my brother receive. In fact, the British pension scheme is one of the poorest in Europe, and the successive governments have always begrudgingly increased the weekly payments by a few pounds. It is a disgrace!

Every year, we are also threatened with the abolition of our bus pass and fuel allowance. What a sad state of affairs!

We have worked and paid for our pension and deserve a decent living, not to be treated as if we imposed a terrible burden on the state resources.

I feel so frustrated and powerless at times!

 

[Papaumau]

Hi Annick - mon amie !

Nice to hear from a French person concerning this subject-matter !

The thing is that you are not saying anything there that we are not already well-aware of and have discussed ad-nauseam.

I for one have fought long and hard for the rights of the pensioners in Britain and have seen very little return for my efforts.

The only things that seem to be improving this situation are a). The re-connection of the state pension to the average wage, and b). The ending of the means test with a flat-rate £140.00 per person across the board.

This is STILL nowhere near what a pensioner should get who has worked all of his or her life to contribute to the welfare of this country. We are all waiting for the details of this seemingly generous state pension before we finally know if we are getting a fair deal or just another rip-off.

For people who wonder about the correlation with the British and the European state pensions, as a percentage of the average wage, I usually show them this graph:



Thanks again for that Ivanhoe !