GORDON Brown last night dismissed calls to surrender his £123,000 a year pension when he is forced to stop being prime minister next June.
Mr Brown was defiant in the face of City outrage despite the UK government's annual operating loss of £100bn, rising to £1.5 trillion when the write-down of its banking assets is taken into account.
The prime minister said: "I've been building up this pension since I became an MP, it's all completely legal and now you want to take it away because I've been catastrophically bad at my job and you're looking for a scapegoat. What gives?"
He added: "Yes I've been in charge of financial regulation for 12 years, yes I encouraged the housing bubble, and yes I p ed billions up the wall giving pointless jobs to Labour voters, but I fail to see what any of this has to do with me being incredibly well off."
Brown's £3m pension pot is expected to cast the spotlight on the extravagant retirement packages of other failed politicians including Alistair Darling's inexplicable £1.7m and the £1.5m awarded to John Prescott for being a national scandal for 10 years.
Meanwhile Margaret Beckett has a fund worth £1.7m, something called 'Hilary Armstrong' has £1.2m and Tessa Jowell has £1m even though no-one has the faintest idea what any of them actually did.
Critics insist Mr Brown has a moral duty to hand back his pension fund as he will inevitably receive a multi-million pound advance for two volumes of eye-gougingly tedious memoirs which will end up in the bargain bucket at WH Smith within a fortnight.
Martin Bishop, head of pension rows at the Institute for Studies, said: "It's a fascinating dynamic. The politicians blame the bankers, the bankers blame the politicians, and the ordinary taxpayer is down on all fours with a confused look on his face, being f ed at both ends."
I know it's not considered "kind" to say no these days, but no. Just no, ok? And if it's not ok, still no.
9th Mar 2009 2:09 pm
Willy Eckerslike
Member Since: 12 Jan 2009
Location: N Yorks
Posts: 1612
PeteClub Pie n Pea
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9th Mar 2009 2:16 pm
London Lad
Member Since: 27 May 2008
Location: Suffolk
Posts: 505
Quite right too!
Fred Goodwin only nominally messed up a bank, Brown messed up a whole country ! .
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You should never argue with idiots because they will just drag you down to their level....then beat you with experience !
9th Mar 2009 2:28 pm
Nickhearne
Member Since: 28 May 2005
Location: Beaconsfield Bucks
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Very good & very true! Range Rover Sport Estate 2.0 P400e Hse Dynamic Black
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9th Mar 2009 2:55 pm
SN
Member Since: 03 Jan 2006
Location: Romiley
Posts: 13710
@DiscoStu - this thread used as a test
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9th Mar 2009 4:00 pm
countrywide
Member Since: 16 Sep 2007
Location: UK
Posts: 6019
Easy to blame the politicians, but this is a world economic downturn, even he can't be reposible for the whole world failing .
Not a fan of him though.
A lot of blame has to be put on tax payers as well.
9th Mar 2009 4:07 pm
London Lad
Member Since: 27 May 2008
Location: Suffolk
Posts: 505
I agree but I detest the man and his ilk.
I just can't understand how he and others think they can fix a problem caused by over borrowing against overvalued assets by err.... over borrowing against no assets and trying to encourage us to do the same !.
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You should never argue with idiots because they will just drag you down to their level....then beat you with experience !
9th Mar 2009 4:12 pm
SJR
Member Since: 09 Aug 2006
Location: East Manchester
Posts: 4030
countrywide wrote:
.............. even he can't be reposible for the whole world failing .
He did try and take credit for saving the world though.
I don't trust any politicians, but i think that this current lot in government have taken the gravy train to a whole new level.
Everything is a case of do as i say not as i do. And, we always know best, even when we are wrong.
The sooner the next election comes and they all get sent back to scotland they get what's coming, the better as far as i am concerned. the replacement might not be better but it will be a change I believe that every human has a finite number of heart-beats. I don't intend to waste any of mine running around doing exercises.
Buzz Aldrin (1930 -
9th Mar 2009 4:12 pm
Willy Eckerslike
Member Since: 12 Jan 2009
Location: N Yorks
Posts: 1612
Here Here Here,..........................
and they'll repeal the Hunting ban. Club Pie n Pea
One life....Fish it
D3 Gone but not forgotten
Club Men of Oak
Club Walnut sniffers
D4 Van owner
Ents long lost Uncle
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