Gordon Brown & Pensions

[flip-flop]

Well well well - in 1997 Gordon Brown was advised that his pension theft would cause problems - the problems are huge.

Has this scuppered his chance of becoming leader?

[jno]

no

[Gromit]

Gordon Brown has rightly taken flak for the private pensions fiasco of recent years. The only difference now is that under the Freedom of Information Act, papers (memos, emails) have been revealled that show he was warned that his actions could have a detrimental effect on pensions, as has been the case.

Most people suspected that Brown had the advice and chose to ignore it, now we have confimation.

The treasury have fought at every level not to reveal the documents because they are undoubtedly harmful to Brown and the Department. Meanwhile, most of the media is distracted by some sailors with a dodgy compass and Brown will get away with it again.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jse ssionid=TSRWDSX4XR2QZQFIQMGSFGGAVCBQWIV0?xml=/ news/2007/04/02/npension102.xml

[jake-the-peg]

It's great the way this is always referred to as pensions tax - a great piece of misdirection.

Shall we remind ourselves exactly what was taxed - company dividends - that is profits from investments.

If I make money from investments I pay tax on them just as I do if I go to work and actually work for my living.

Perhaps you can explain why we should pay tax on money we earn through going to work and labouring over but not on company dividends which are hard won by people sitting on their bottoms?

[matt66]

Blair has said that he will retire when the time is right. With the iran crisis....how can the time be right. The US hostage crisis took 454 days to resolve. This may take longer....so scottish highway robber Brown will have to wait. love to see his face in September.

[youngmafbog]

Jake let us remind ourselves of EXACTLY what was taxed. It was dividends on company dividends ONLY for pension funds. Private pension funds are there to prevent the government from having to pay us, therefore they should enjoy certain benfits to encourage people to save for their old age and remove dependance from the state. Actuarial rates were calculated using the tax allowance of the company dividends hence the big hole. All he has done is taken money now and left a legacy for some other poor Government to pick up in the next 15-20 years.

Remember too that penion funds help our economy immensly. Problem is that as a good Socialist brown thinks (and I use the word loosley) that he knows better than us what to do with our cash.

All in all the man, as we know, is arrogant and short sighted.

[matt66]

anyone who can fly the english falg in his garden during the world cup just to appease the electorate and fooling them into thinking that he is not scottish after all is really a stalinist in his thinking. the man is a disaster for the labour party and now for the country. he is so mad he may even bomb scotland just to show his allegience to the english

[matt66]

He took 5 billion every year. In fact he wanted to take 8 billion out of the pensions but was prevented from doing so after a bitter row with Blair. So this was the trump card that blair had with him all the time. he has used it now and watch and see how the whole thing blows into the open. Shame about the iran crisis. it is deflecting from this issue.

[flip-flop]

Jake - you wouldn't happen to be a civil servant would you?