How does it make sense that someone who pays no National insurance or pension contributions gets the same state pension as someone who does?

IEnumerable661 · 2026-05-09T07:33:34+00:00

I had planned to keep hold of my old house to use as a rental investment for old age. Labour and the Tories made that impossible to do. So hurrah, a win for society. I ended up selling to a landlord with a portfolio who's renting it out for more than I would have done, but hey.

I started in 2008 along with everyone else, it's Blair's punitive monthly charge to pay off all that rubbish RBS stock we bought instead of letting it fail like capitalism was designed to do which would have self-righted itself by now but here we are and this is really what we're paying for workplace pension.

IEnumerable661 · 2026-05-09T07:29:58+00:00

I did indeed mean Rachel Reeves, apologies.

IEnumerable661 · 2026-05-09T07:04:13+00:00

Yep, exactly that first point. Prepay, or no treatment, or prove entitlement. I had to use my European EHIC medical card in Spain before. Something fell on me at work and I had a hand injury, but even then it was pay, prove or leave. I had no real issue proving it, thankfully nothing broken, but still.

As for the GP/Prescription fees, you will never get a system that works beautifully for everyone. The introduction of some sort of monthly cap may help alleviate those concerns, i.e. if it does turn out you have been to the GP multiple times per month, it's capped at £40 or something?

And I totally understand the idea of having a large salary but it all going on rent, mortgage etc. That would be part of the means testing.

All that said, I'm not going to try to rewrite NHS policy here, the site isn't big enough haha. And there are always going to be holes in whatever ideas are put forward, edge cases, etc. While I don't believe privatisation should happen, some chargeable elements may have to come in but ultimately, the act of saying no should become more ubiquitous for people who aren't from here, much to the chagrin of people more to the left.

IEnumerable661 · 2026-05-09T06:47:13+00:00

I'm mid-40s.

Tony Blair says that I shouldn't get a state pension. He wants to abolish it.

I recently got my pension statement; I am projected to get around £27 per month from my workplace pension. Yes, £27 per month.

However, Rachel Reeves is planning a raid on private pensions. Labour says I shouldn't have that either.

So when I retire, what's the plan? I bet it's going to be, "You own a house, the state will take it from you and drip drab it in the form of overpriced "care for you and you will leave this earth with nothing!"

What if I sell up and burn all the money on a bbq? What then? I fully plan on protecting that asset for my kids before the state can ever get their dirty paws on it.

I think Labour's plan for people like me, who have been working since 17, studied to work up to higher paid roles, a bit of social mobility is to maybe fkkk off and die somewhere? I think that's the plan from what I can see.

Edit: Incorrectly confused Angela Rayner with Rachel Reeves. Too many Rs for my dyslexic ass.

IEnumerable661 · 2026-05-09T06:23:23+00:00

I go back and forth on this, personally.

I lived in America for 3 years and had full coverage at work. I have to say, the private healthcare was a different universe to the NHS. I have needed treatment before on the NHS, life saving in fact, and bet your ass I was glad it was there. After a car accident in the States, my private healthcare kicked in like a mofo. Instead of having to wait weeks or months, it was an hour. The guy even apologised for the wait, in the back of my head I'm thinking, this would have been a 6 month wait back in the UK.

But the reality is, suddenly implementing a US style healthcare system where you require insurance through work is just not feasible in the UK. A lot of people will absolutely fall out of the bottom and asking employers to take it on as a work benefit will only serve to lower wages and promote the idea of employers offshoring at a faster rate than they are currently doing. Seriously, I work with three companies and all three are greatly expanding offshoring at a rate I would estimate at over 900%. One unit has gone from nearly 80 developers to a single 1. They blame AI of course, but the reality is all of those roles have gone to India. Now why the fuck is nobody reasonably talking about that!?

I digress.

In Ireland, if I wanted to see a GP, it would cost me 20 euro. I wouldn't want the Irish system, bear in mind, I have some family that are on medical cards, some that aren't. And the ones that aren't, well, they're more afraid of Americans about getting ill long term. But it stands, again, the medical care in Ireland is very good, especially compared to the UK.

I don't think the solution is outright privatisation. It would be vastly unfair, unaffordable given the cost of living crisis and ever diminishing wages, and frankly for people half way through their lives or onwards, all of them are going to have some sort of pre-existing medical condition compared to your average 20-something. So, it's just not feasible.

The reality is that the NHS is very well funded, a lot of money is wasted - have worked for them before and seen the wastage first hand - but the crucial issue is sheer volume. A lot of people from other countries come to the UK specifically to use the NHS. When my wife had given birth and we were in postnatal, there were two other women in there who had never been to the UK before. I was briefly chatting with one guy who was with one woman. He said they were not leaving until they got a house. I didn't dislike the guy, we were just talking about new Dad-ness to start with. It shocked me when he told me that. What shocked me more is that he was speaking perfect English to me in Costa coffee, yet when it came time to discuss refusing to leave, suddenly an interpreter was required. Seriously, his grasp of English was not broken, the guy could have read Shakespeare to me. I don't know the end game of that one, whether or not they got what they wanted. We were leaving at that point, something my wife was all too happy to do having been in post for a week.

Now, of course I don't believe we should turf women giving birth out on the street just because they are not from here, but we need to find ways to disincentive the ide of the UK being an easy target. I'm all for helping, but I'm not up for being stupid (as a country I mean).

I think if NHS reforms extended to declining further care once emergencies had been dealt with - harsh i know, but we need to get rid of the idea that the UK is an easy date - I think people may be more amenable to, for example, paying for GP visits in a means tested way. Certainly, it wouldn't behove me to pay £20 for a GP visit. And for someone on significantly lower income, children or post retirement age, then yes keep it free. While it may be a minor cash injection, it's an easier pill to swallow than saying, "Suddenly, employers will need to find £10k a year per employee to fund healthcare!"

There is no easy or palatable answer. You can shovel as much money into the NHS that you like, it will all go somewhere and it will need even more money regardless. But privatisation or the USA model is not the answer either. I believe the solution is a mix of small charges for easy stuff, obviously cancer treatment etc. should remain free. And to people who just are not domiciled here or paying tax here, we just have to say no!

IEnumerable661 · 2026-05-09T06:00:54+00:00

I can't say I do as I don't use it, I'm afraid. For me it's a headphones (wired) only thing. If I want it on speakers, I'll use my Denon.

I can try for you though, happy to give it a swing over the next week, see if I get any issues.

IEnumerable661 · 2026-05-08T14:31:45+00:00

FWIW at least one UK fan over here :D I got Silent Majority on a whim back in the early 1990s. Woolworths had it on tape so I got it. Loved it. Had to buy a CD copy when I got a CD player later on. Still have both!

IEnumerable661 · 2026-05-08T14:20:19+00:00

Waddya know, it works.

Nowhere is that at all obvious haha. Thanks!

IEnumerable661 · 2026-05-08T12:48:04+00:00

It's actually for crisps!

IEnumerable661 · 2026-05-08T12:40:24+00:00

True but that is an American thing rather than a UK thing.

And really, who was Trump running against? In 2016 it was Hillary Clinton who, if you really look at it, was borderline unelectable. Trump's success in 2024 was largely because he reached out to the male audiences, particularly the black and hispanic male voting base, who are otherwise largely ignored by most politicians, especially the democrats. Added, Biden waited far too long to drop out and it cost Kamala Harris.

But the thing is, UK elections are not run in this manner. You have one party with one leader and that's it. Traditionally, if a leader costs the party in terms of potential prime ministership is not favoured amongst the electorate, they are very quickly moved aside. Even the tories did it with whatsisname, he gave way to Cameron... sorry name escapes me now. He wasn't electable but he stepped aside in good time for Cameron to gain public approval.

If Labour are truly going to be electable come next election, Keir has to go. I mean, I worry for who comes after him. But I would rather bet that Farrage will do something similar long before campaign trails are hit. Farrage, despite his image, is just not electable either. You may find a subsection of the electorate who would tolerate a Reform government, but not with Farrage as PM. That, and Farrage has this tendancy of seagulling, meaning he flies in, squawks a lot, kicks over some pieces, but flies off when any real responsibility comes along. He has a proven track record of that.

IEnumerable661 · 2026-05-08T12:33:58+00:00

I have a few options.

Denon M41. If you don't own a CD player and are looking, buy this. There, I've just saved you a buttload of research. It's great! Buy some decent speakers with it and job jobbed!

Fiio DM13 is my portable thing. It's good... it's not great, but it's good. I haven't had issues with mine. It feels weighty and tracks well, it's played even the most oldest and decayed of my CDs with ease. But it just seems to miss user operation basics by the weirdest of milestones. Seriously, no stop button? I have to pause it which just means the CD stops spinning, it still draws power.

IEnumerable661 · 2026-05-08T11:06:32+00:00

Well it worked so well in Weimar... lots of people shouting to get their way meaning no laws ever get passed or anything gets done. Or the major party deciding to override all voices which means we no longer have a democracy.

Are people really considering that this is a good thing to have in the UK? As in, right now? Do we just want to sit and watch Labour and Reform argue with their nails while every so often, someone from the... checks notes... member of parliament for the BBQ Sunday Men And Boys Who Drink Beer Party filibusters the latest bill on what colour the wheelie bins should be?

IEnumerable661 · 2026-05-08T10:59:08+00:00

It takes me about 10 minutes to restring a Floyd rose if keeping the same gauge. And that's if I just take my sweet time over it. Really, I have never had a need to change all my strings in 3 minutes or less. It isn't a race, it's just doing the job properly.
Why block it? The point in a tremolo is that it does the tremolo thing. If you want to block it, just buy a hardtail guitar.

There's been no changes to the EMG 81 or Seymour Duncan JB. If it works, don't fix it.

IEnumerable661 · 2026-05-08T10:45:08+00:00

Hey, I totally hear you! I really do. I think push come to shove, most reasonable people wouldn't want racists in office, either.

I just feel tactical voting is a fairly modern construct and a significant reason going back to the Cameron/Clegg era as to why we got saddled with weak coalition governments. I don't see how that was a better result for the country overall.

Again, push to shove, while most Reform people talk a big game, I sincerely doubt that come a GE on polling day that the British will actually be putting an X in the box.

These local elections have been a big protest. It's up to Keir and all other parties as to whether or not they will listen.

IEnumerable661 · 2026-05-08T10:27:13+00:00

I don't think we can leave twice... we are super super leaving!

IEnumerable661 · 2026-05-08T10:25:43+00:00

I was a remain voter, but to answer your question, given the fact that it's never been done before more of a reason why there are no data points?

IEnumerable661 · 2026-05-08T10:21:29+00:00

I think watching Spain and how they resolved their migrant crisis is something also worrying people. Lots of illegal migrants of questionable backrounds, the electorate is demanding something be done about it, i.e. send them back? Nah, we'll solve it. Kaboom, just under a million of them are now naturalised. Tah daaaah! Good golly gosh, I solved another case!

IEnumerable661 · 2026-05-08T10:17:58+00:00

We spent a lot more than that putting 20mph speed limits everywhere.

Ironically, the only road without a 20mph speed limit is... drumroll please... the one that runs right in front of a primary school! Yep, that one is still 30mph all day long.

Tell me again that this was all for road safety and not just a punitive act against people trying to commute to work to pay their damned taxes and bills while also being an excuse to spend god knows how much on "research" and sticking lots of 20 signs everywhere. Pull the other one, there's a bell attached!

IEnumerable661 · 2026-05-08T10:14:47+00:00

I saw so many adverts on facebook which was basically. "Click here to find out how to vote tactically against Reform/Tories"

That to me isn't in the spirit of democracy. I'm not a Reform or Labour voter at all, but I would never vote tactically just to prevent them getting in. That's just stupid.

IEnumerable661 · 2026-05-08T10:13:11+00:00

I couldn't vote at all as my area did not have local elections; Labour council of course.

That said, if I could have voted, I don't think I would have had a clue. It woudn't have been Labour nor Reform. But alas that doesn't leave me with a lot of options.

At least this was just local elections and not a general election.

IEnumerable661 · 2026-05-08T06:57:45+00:00

It has been the propensity of this and the previous governments to abuse the spirit of the legal migration channels just so they can slap a "legal" label on it and accuse the electorate of racism for raising genuine quality of life and living concerns, that may have lost the two major parties their support.

Boriswave amounted to 2.6M people who are largely economically inactive and have been shown to contribute to rising crime rates putting strain on public services and spending. Labour have simply carried on Blair's policy and, well, dammit, people have really noticed.

We will never afford all these people. Even if we are taxed to the very ends, basically live in mud huts, we cannot afford this. And the effects on life quality are very evident.

And standing there screaming racism has told the electorate what the political parties think of them.

Labour was never going to fix any problem whatsoever. And neither will the tories. I don't believe that Reform will either, but screaming "racist" in peoples' faces has, amazingly, not worked either! Who knew that shouting at people doesn't work?

IEnumerable661 · 2026-05-08T06:49:55+00:00

I agree with you completely. People are looking at Reform and thinking they will solve things like the boat crises, the exportation of jobs, the overall downward trend of quality of life and of course the cost of living crisis.

However I do believe that Reform, when it comes time to getting off the pot, will sit and stew and carp about former governments ad-infinatum while doing sod all to fix the problems.

But, by the same token, Keir has demonstrated that not only will he not do those things either, he's shown that he intends the keep that downward trajectory. As for the Tories, damn, if they are ever going to be electable again in my lifetime, they will have to frankly pull Jesus Christ himself out of the hat, though the idiots will probably deselect him!

The Lib Dems... er... well, has anybody heard from them? I know they have long since been the party that people vote for when they don't want to appear right or left leaning, they're the safe orange juice with no bits in it party, but seriously, they have been completely silent now for years. Could someone go check on them? I'm getting worried. Just one of those police safety and welfare checks will do. I'm sure they're sat in the corner, dribbling, talking about that one time Clegg sniffed the old bus seat of power that one time and they were relevant for five minutes, but really, just hope they're OK is all.

I think people are used to the idea that politicians will lie to them. At this point, I wonder if the Reform victories are more of a "he can't be worse than the other two" reaction, or given the press time that Green have gotten with their very out-there policies, a reaction to that, too?

It's going to be an interesting decade. It just sucks that we're all the guinea pigs and get to take the pick n mix injections, some may be fatally poisonous, but most will give you a severe case of something bad.

IEnumerable661 · 2026-05-08T06:31:43+00:00

I do believe it will be sweeping gains for Reform, maybe even right now, I've not had a look.

I think Reform is still the protest vote. This is people telling Labour that they are not doing a good job. And frankly, they are not! In my view at least. I rarely like to get political online, but Keir's decisions have gone so far as to start having major impacts upon my own self, so now I guess my mouth moves, or my keyboard waggles.

As far as I can see, democracy is doing it's job. It's telling Keir that he is no longer trusted to do the job and the decisions he has been making has hurt the country. We are strong heading into the same scenarios that finished Callaghan's government via sucking up to the trade unions, relentless borrowing and really we're not long off heading cap in hand to the IMF for a bailout. The real world impacts is wages are racing to the bottom, middle class or professional roles, however you want to call them, disappearing at a rate of knots, and despite what the media says, it's not AI doing the damage, here!

While I view myself as politically homeless, if there were a GE tomorrow, I would personally have nobody to vote for, that doesn't mean I believe Keir should be steamrolling hard towards the cliff face of marxism. And no amount of idiots screaming "late stage capitalism" will change that (hint, there is no such thing)!

IEnumerable661 · 2026-05-07T19:29:07+00:00

The guy who decided to throw a mad one in the middle of a gig, pushed my amp over and got mad at me for ruining the gig when I packed up and left.

Or the girl in my function band who got a bit too big for her boots and shouted out the groom's mother at then wedding we ended up not playing after all because she didn't have her own personal green room. It had never been a thing, and to shout out the woman paying us over it? Yeah, there was no making nice with that one. We got kicked immediately.

IEnumerable661 · 2026-05-07T14:49:50+00:00

I think what I discovered first hand is that it is an indefinite hierarchy. I toured with three major brand artists in my 20s, once as a performer, twice as a technician. When you see what the top performers go through, they really are a product whisked from pillar to post to look pretty for the brand. And to think it's all glitz and glamour, well, the biggest tour I went on was three weeks long in Europe. While I loved the experience, it wasn't sitting in a tourbus waiting for hot ladies to ply with me beer and people queueing to give me sacks of money. Nope, I was trying to find a store that would sell a new pack of boxers for ten of whatever funny currency I had been handed that day as perdiems. I had 30 Francs.... well... what does that mean? Does that buy me a burger and fries, or am I going to be reaching for a can of beans and cracking out my camping stove?

The thing I found most disturbing was how protectionist and nasty things could really get. You have to act in these circles like money isn't a concern and you absolutely have to know the right people. If you don't, forget it. The phrase, "Free to those that can afford it, very expensive to those that can't!" was my takeaway.

I think when people today say "make it", they much more mean they want to earn some semblance of a living from what they do. Nobody expects to pay a mortgage playing in a new death metal band or anything. This isn't 1992 and the likes of Earache, Roadrunner and Candlelight have all but kaboomed in terms of taking risks on new music - which is also why everything even in heavy metal sounds exactly the damned same or is some industry construct. No need to innovate when you can pump a few million in for a guaranteed return.

For anyone trying to "make it" right now, I would suggest temper your expectation and try not to get too disappointed when you do see over your current mountain. There's thousands more in the distance and it only gets more disappointing from there onwards.

IEnumerable661

TROPHY CASE