March saw me fall far short of my usual target of fourteen posts a month. My holiday on the Isle of Purbeck was followed by a bout of man-flu of a severity previously unknown to medical science. I lay in bed awaiting the grim reaper. Chicken soup and admonitions about my failure to, "look after yourself" have been delivered at regular intervals and I have been nurtured by the warmth of love. Listening to the radio has been my main source of entertainment and many and wondrous have been the things that I have learnt as a result. Until Gideon Osborn's Budget Speech I, like many people I imagine, had little idea what an annuity was. Probably thought that it sounded a bit boring but vaguely good. Now of course I realise that these annuities have been depriving all those better off pensioners of their sacred right to spend their final years para-gliding in the Maldives. Can they be trusted with their own money? Apparently, yes they can. Some Moaning Minnies have suggested that the Chancellor might have been better advised to help those pensioners for whom whether or not to spend their pot of gold on death by cruising is not an issue as just having a pot to piss in would be nice.
And then there's the whole issue of Gay Marriage. I never thought that I would agree with Brian Sewell about anything but I have to admit that Anthony Blunt's old chum is right on the money here. There is nothing in any way progressive about gay marriage. It's just another nice little earner for the loathsome wedding industry. Not stoning gays to death or drowning them in the mill-pond, that's "progressive". But the solution is there before our eyes. Civil Ceremony for all and Civil Ceremony the only arrangement recognised in law. If couples, straight, gay or whatever then wanted to go through a ceremony under the auspices of the Catholics, Muslims, Hari Krishna, Christian Scientists, Scientology or the League Against Cruel Sports they could fill their boots. That would be between them and the cult of their choice.
I think that I might be getting better.
2 comments:
Glad you are well. Keeping away from the NHS and Liverpool Death Pathway.
Civil Ceremony plus faith of your choice as an extra is sensible. But show some compassion to the lawyers. Legal aid has been cut and lawyers are in pain. Then along comes equality based legislation for gay marriage and with it opportunities to sue vicars, priests, churches and any who refuse to provide gays with God's blessings. A lawyer's paradise. They can sue caterers, photographers, taxi firms, pedlars of wedding paraphernalia who, for whatever crazy reason, withold their products from gay weddings. Got to hand it to Dave: he taketh with one hand and giveth in abundance with the other.
Many moons ago I was a teenage trainee actuary - working on annuities. Essentially you're looking at life expectancy, and how much the company providing the annuity can expect to get back from the annuity - a lump sum which the company uses to buy shares in arms companies, tobacco companies, booze companies and mining companies. The company wants to give the annuitant as little as possible whilst remaining competitive. I'm glad to say I went home one Friday and on Saturday I was hitch-hiking through France. When I got back I'd been sacked. I hated that job.
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