Rantings from the woods 3...

Enough with fake news, are we considering none news? Earlier this week the BBC revelation that people of pensionable age were £20 better off a month than the average family! Why is that a surprise or wrong? How useless and unquantifiable is this statement? Just consider for a moment the range of this equation, from newly weds with there first real taste of living the dream to octogenarians receiving a pension and spending their savings living in a house that was paid for 30 years since. It beggars belief this constitutes news and hangs in the ether only a day before disappearing to whence it came. The usefulness of this information is zero the implied message is again how the poor youth of the day have it so tough and every retired person is on the golf course. Well unfortunately how conveniently and quickly we forget how the dear old pensioner paid for this dubious pleasure of an extra £4.65 a week. Firstly, didn't we used to save for things, didn't we have 2 or 3 jobs to make ends meet, was it not us paying 12-16% mortgage interest and just managing to live "within" our means, against the modern credit age, remind me, was it not the greedy 110% mortgage house buyers of recent years that caused the prime mortgage banking crisis and financial crash which ripple effects filtered through having consequences on investments and pensions, once more here the savers of our society, pensioners and the man in the street footing the bill. It would be good to see a spreadsheet of all the times parents and grandparents have paid for schooling, bought the first and second cars for their kids and supplied funds for the first house deposit whilst along the way sorting out the occasional mobile phone bill and credit card debt. Anyone who reaches pensionable age is incredibly lucky to have £20 at all after a lifetime of being rogered by the government and depended on by the family, not that I have a spare 20 so don't ask.  john Lester Griffiths.