Bob Crow Dies | Breaking News

[LazyGun]

Bit of a shock, given his high profile.

[emmie]

Champagne socialist you mean,

[Old_Geezer]

It is news like folk dying at 52 which makes me wonder why I'm still foolishly earning a salary and getting stressed in the rat race. I don't need the hassle and clearly may not even get to a point when I can pass the reigns over and enjoy the rewards, as this sort of tale illustrates. (Nor can the government even start to justify the exploitation of those that contribute all their life by raising the pension age.) Then on the other hand if one jumps too soon and takes a personal financial hit for being good enough to vacate their job for a younger person to have, one may find financial hardship later on that could have been avoided. In a well run society these sort of decisions wouldn't be so critical but the one we live in authorities are too keen on collecting the money from the contributors to pay out to those who aren't able or willing to, and see no reason for taxpayers save to find and accept whatever is pushed on them. 52, and for what was it all about ?

[Bazile]

Hasn't anyone found a way to work - you know who - into this thread yet ?

Ideal oppurtunity , i would have thought

[mikey4444]

Bazile...you will have to give us a better clue than that ! Do you mean Mrs Voldemort ? ( we no longer breath her name here in Wales )

[jno]

OG, I had a colleague who enjoyed his work, which he'd done for nearly 50 years (starting very young), retired looking forward to the rest of his life, and died within months. I was one of many who took early retirement over the next year, thinking what you're thinking now.

[carrust]

Bob Crow didn't have a normal birth. He walked out after 9 months:-)

[emmie]

many don't live to see retirement, my o/h was one of them

[ELVIS68]

Bob Crow and the RMT was only ever any good if you were a tube or train driver, anything else you ain't worth jack sh!te

[decmangan]

How long before a conspiracy theory emerges? He was a thorn in a lot of sides and rightly so.

[jno]

yes, I'd be asking to check Boris's polonium stocks.

[askyourgran]

lol jno,
I didn't really like him but he worked hard for the union, he seemed a bit of a bully boy to me. I was disgusted that he stayed in a council house when he earned so much money and as others have said, it was like Scargill demanding his rent on the London flat. It is just petty meanness. He always put me in mind of that idiot Galloway though. Sad that he has passed away so young.

[petal54]

is his passing all that it appears?

[baza]

He worked his way up in the union via being a rep on London Underground when it was the NUR.

[emmie]

petal, the consensus seems to be and that would be from medical people, he had a massive heart attack, why would anyone bump him off, this isn't Soviet shenanigans

[factor-fiction]

It does make you think about whether to start drawing an company pension (and take the hit of actuarial reductions) at the first opportunity just in case you never actually get to draw it.
Unfortunately, OG,I'm not aware of any well run societies in the world where the government/taxpayers can afford to pay pensions to people from aged early 50s especially if it's to be an amount we can live on. If we want to retire early and have a reasonable standard of living we all need to put aside a substantial amount, rather than a few pounds, from our earnings. Sadly it's not feasible for people to work 30 years and then expect the state to pay for the next 30.
Yes I can see that giving some money to someone in their 50s may create a job down the line for an 18 year old and therefore save on JSA, but jobs market doesn't really work like that as it's based so much on skills, experience and knowledge.
Anyway, I'm off to get a quote for drawing my pension at 55....

[Old_Geezer]

If a country can afford to pay welfare then they can afford to pay pension instead. One doesn't get so called "full employment": at any moment there are just so many job positions and consequently only so many who can earn and contribute to the country's wealth. It's just a case of who the country wants to employ and who to pay for out of public money. It's a switch from one budget to another. So pretty much all of the richer countries could afford it since they are already paying money out. It's the will do to so rather than use those who have proved to be good citizens in the past and therefore easy targets, that is missing.

[Old_Geezer]

It's not based on skills and experience as much any more. Technology races on. What was leading edge and an employment advantage one decade is old hat and useless the next. And in traditional trades training should be given to youngsters anyway, which isn't going to happen unless they are given employment in the first place. It's just a case of where one draws the starting and finishing ages.

[naomi24]

I'm surprised he was only 52. He looked 10 years older. Good living perhaps.

[jomifl]

f-f I've been drawing my pension since I was 55, can't recommend it too highly, its no good to you when you are dead.

[mikey4444]

Most of the comments in the media this last day or so have been quite positive. Apparently he wasn't the growly bear that he seemed to be. A good candidate for working class hero, council house or not.