Pensions-Triple-Lock-Yes-Or-No Mrs May ?

[mikey4444]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-politics-39723837/snp-pensions-triple-lock-yes-or-no

Mrs May was given plenty of opportunity to say if she would guarantee that the triple lock on State Pensions would continue, but she refused to say yes or no !

Surely, with this Election, which she has called, so close, she would know if this guarantee is to continue or not........a simple question, that needed a simple answer, not the lot of waffle that we saw today !

[naomi24]

I didn't see her today. Has Jeremy Corbyn said would he would do - given the opportunity?

[Garaman]

As a pensioner myself, Mikey, I have to admit that it is a very generous arrangement that she would be foolish to guarantee if she doesn't have to, which of course she doesn't.

[naomi24]

tut. *would he would do* .... what he would do ....

[Jackdaw33]

Simple questions often need complicated answers. You should know that, being a Labour man

[EDDIE51]

Before the referendum Mrs May was saying that leaving the EU would be 'Catastrophic' for the UK and that a 3rd runway for Heathrow was 'Fundamentally Flawed ' and 'Defective thinking' !
Oh how she can change her mind when it suits!

[Jackdaw33]

LOL @ Eddie. That's why she's now PM.

[mikey4444]

All she had to do was to answer the SNP chaps simple question. But she didn't and now looks shifty as a result.

Whether we all on here consider the triple lock to be important or not, and I do, she risks alienating an huge amount of people in Britain, if a future Tory Government ditches it. Not being nice to OAPs never did anyone any good.

So, as a result of her shiftiness, I am presuming that there will be some kind of fudge on this issue.

[naomi24]

What has Labour said about it?

[Jackdaw33]

Triple lock means the highest of three parameters. Basically the difference amounts to coppers; does your pension go up 14p, 16p or 18p per week.

[cassa333]

I wouldn't guarantee the triple lock. Although it is probably not much more than 20p a pop it will add up to perhaps billions.

I would rather a silence than a promise she would be unable to keep and TBH if Corbyn or any of the others did guarantee it I would not be impressed. In much the same way I am not impressed she has guaranteed foreign aid. That is the wrong thing to prop up.

[ToraToraTora]

i hate all this tie your hands BS, the PM is correct to avoid pledging the guarantee. It's a silly over reaction to the tuppence halfpenny game it replaced so I would support getting shot of it in favour of a simple index linking scheme. On the wider issue though I think it's silly to pledge anything now when there are 5 years of unknowns.

[naomi24]

TTT, it might be a silly over-reaction, but it's the Tories and hence it's something for Mikey to complain about.

[mikey4444]

TTT....she will have to publish the Manifesto soon, and this issue has to be addressed. All she has done today is to increase suspicion that she is going to ditch this promise....a promise that she and her predecessor made very recently.

Beware the Ides of June, Mrs May !

[ToraToraTora]

I don't see why this level of detail should be in any manifesto. Frankly I would be wary of any party that would tie it's own hands for 5 years with this sort of minutia, manifestos should contain broad policy directions not a lock in for 5 years on the colour of the bog roll in the commons kasi.

[chiaroscuro]

I wish posters would learn how to use apostrophes.

[ToraToraTora]

"it's" instead of its, it's a fair cop, though this is not an English grammar contest. I do know the law of the apostrophe but occasionally in non grammar critical situations I may transgress.

[Peter Pedant]

I think it is NO Mrs May

or Mrs May not !

[jourdain2]

As long as my pension keeps up with inflation it is OK. It would be better if there were an allowance to make up for lost income from savings, which has hit me hard. My interest used to pay a lot of a simple holiday i.e. a week self-catering somewhere.
I hope Mrs. May is merely 'testing the water'.

[mikey4444]

Jourdain....she bottled it today, and consequently did herself no favours whatsoever.....she is "frit"

[jourdain2]

mikey - don't know about 'frit'; but I am certainly keeping a weather-eye open.